The Partnership principle is not an empty concept but a precondition for the success of cohesion policy, particularly as 'de facto' competences are distributed between at least three policy levels: the EU, Member States as well as local and regional authorities, states the draft opinion of Ivan Žagar (EPP/SI) on the Outcome of the negotiations on the partnership agreements and operational programmes which was discussed by the European Committee of the Regions‘ Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER) yesterday.
The Mayor of Slovenska Bistrica’s draft opinion aims at assessing the agreed Partnership Agreements (PAs) and Operational Programmes (OPs) from the perspective of beneficiaries from regional and local authorities (LRAs). The CoR has conducted an extensive online survey among the LRAs involved, which provides support to the opinion’s findings. In total, 63% of the 2014-2020 Investment for Growth and Jobs OPs were approved twelve months after the new regulations came into force, compared to 15% at the same time in the previous 2007-2013 period.
Mr Žagar raises concerns in his opinion that the partnership principle has not been applied appropriately in all Member States:
"The negotiations on the Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes showed that while local and regional authorities were consulted in most cases, their involvement did not amount to the full partnership as outlined in the European Code of Conduct on Partnership. In fact, regions and cities have rarely been involved in drafting the Agreements and Programmes"
In this respect, the document calls on the European Commission to monitor partnership more systematically and report frequently on best practice, proposing a 'name and shame' approach which could be applied in the case of some bad examples.
Mr Žagar's opinion also points out that while the subnational level was responsible for 55% of total public investments in 2013 and thus played a significant role in promoting economic growth in Europe, the subnational finances were in a difficult situation confronted with high levels of debt and austerity measures imposed by higher levels. He calls for further improvements to the multilevel financing system in the future.
In this context, the text of the opinion praises the role of the European Investment Bank whose Structural Programme Loans are an excellent means of mobilising financial resources for viable projects under a given operational programme.
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The renewed cohesion policy has a budget of up to EUR 351.8 billion in total for investments in European regions, cities and the economy. It targets reducing disparities between and within European regions.
