The 14th May took place in Brussels the first presentation of the independent Report “An agenda for a reformed Cohesion Policy” elaborated by Mr. Fabrizio Barca, Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy. Mr. Barca presented the report to the Regional and Local Offices in Brussels.
Mr. Barca defends that the current Cohesion Policy provides an appropriate framework but that a “change of direction” is needed.
Weaknesses of the current Cohesion Policy:
- a weak policy concept: a failure to adopt coherently a place-based perspective;
- a lack of focus on priorities and a failure to distinguish between economic and social objectives;
- a failure of contracts to focus on results and to create adequate incentives to use resources effectively;
- methodological problems in the use of indicators and the evaluation of impacts;
- a remarkable lack of political debate on results.
The reform proposed by Mr. Barca follows 5 principles that include 10 pillars:
1. Concentrating resources
The resources of the Cohesion Policy should be concentrated into 5-6 priorities. “Priorities” mean issues that must be addressed through sectoral interventions. These 5-6 priorities must be chosen because of:
- their relevance;
- they need to be designed according to the territory;
- they must be verified.
Consequently, a priority could be climate change because it is a challenge for Europe, because it does not affect all the territory in the same way and, so, the interventions would vary form a territory to another, and because the fight against climate change can be easily verified (reduction of gases).
2. Orienting grants to results
- A New Strategic Framework for Cohesion Policy should be elaborated at political level by 2012 to determine the requirements to be fulfilled by all Member States.
- A new contractual relationship, implementation and reporting aimed at results. The contract should start setting the objectives and not, like in the current period, with the distribution of financial resources.
- A strengthened governance for core priorities. The EU establishes principles at EU level and each Member State commit themselves to implement those principles in the way they see they fit in their territory.
- Promoting additional, innovative and flexible spending. The spending should be more serious and flexible, really informing about what is planned to do with the EU funding. The automatic sanctions should be eliminated and it should be more national accountability.
3. Mobilizing and learning
- Promoting experimentalism and mobilizing local actors. Sometimes the Cohesion Policy is not experimental enough. For example, rural areas are not allowed to really be involved in the process. Mr. Barca proposes to assign 1% of the budget to the local level to experiment by stimulating.
- Promoting the learning process: a move towards prospective impact evaluation. Cohesion Policy should become the best way to evaluate the impact of its measures. It should be able to tell citizens its real effects which could have a disciplinary effect to their participants.
4. Strengthening the Commission
- Refocusing and strengthening the role of the Commission as a centre of competence. The European Commission should strengthen its human resources. It should “evaluator departments” with people from the territory and from the sectoral policies. A higher coordination between DG Employment and DG REGIO it is also needed.
- Addressing financial management and control. The new financial system of the new Cohesion Policy would allow some financial resources to be invested in human resources.
5. Reinforcing political checks and balances
- Reinforcing the high-level political system of checks and balances. There is a need of a more active role of the European Council and European Parliament which should give its opinion also on the contracts and results of the Cohesion Policy.
Mr. Barca ended highlighting the 3 conditions to enable this reform
- A strong and timely political compromise on the strategy;
- Anticipating/experimenting some changes in the current period;
- Aligning the negotiation on resources, governance and goals.
