European Parliament resolution on the proposal for a Council regulation laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund (COM(2004)0492 - 2004/0163(AVC))
Date: 2005-07-06
Institutions: Committee on Regional Development, European Parliament
Subjects: Cohesion Fund, European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund, economic and social cohesion, enlargement of the Union, multiannual financial framework

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Off-site transfer of each pollutant destined for waste-water treatment in quantities exceed-
ing threshold value (according to Annex II)

Pollutant 1

Pollutant 2

Pollutant N

M: measured; Analytical Method used

en kg/year

C: calculated; Calculation Method used

E: estimated

Off-site transfers of hazardous waste for the facility exceeding threshold value (according to Article 5)

Within the country:

For Recovery (R)

For Disposal (D)

To other countries:

For Recovery (R)

Name of the recoverer

Address of the recoverer

Address of actual recovery site receiving the transfer

To other countries:

For Disposal (D)

Name of the disposer

Address of the disposer

in tonnes/year

in tonnes/year

in tonnes/year

in tonnes/year

Address of actual disposal site receiving the transfer

Off-site transfer of non-hazardous waste for the facility exceeding threshold value (according to Article 5)

For Recovery (R)

For Disposal (D)

Competent authority for requests of the public:

in tonnes/year

in tonnes/year

Name

Street address

Town/village

Telephone No

Fax No

E-mail address

(1) According to Article 3(1) of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a
framework for Community action in the field of water policy (OJ L 327, 22.12.2000, p. 1). Directive as amended by Decision No 2455/
2001/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2001, p. 1).

P6_TA(2005)0277

ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund ***

European Parliament resolution on the proposal for a Council regulation laying down general provi-
sions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion
Fund (COM(2004)0492 — 2004/0163(AVC))

(Assent procedure)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the proposal for a Council regulation (COM(2004)0492 — 2004/0163(AVC)),

— having regard to Article 161 of the EC Treaty,

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— having regard to its resolution of 22 April 2004 on the third report on economic and social cohe-

sion (1),

Wednesday 6 July 2005

— having regard to Rule 75(3) of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the interim report of the Committee on Regional Development and the opinions of
the Committee on Budgets, Committee on Budgetary Control, Committee on Employment and Social
Affairs, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Committee on Transport and
Tourism, Committee on Fisheries and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
(A6-0177/2005),

Considers the proposal for a regulation to be in overall accordance with its resolution of 22 April
1.
2004 and makes no further direct endorsement, therefore, of the Commission proposals, but calls never-
theless, with particular reference to the debate in Council, on the Commission and the Council to take
account of the following specific recommendations;

2.
Deplores the failure of the European Council to reach agreement on the financial perspectives and
expresses its concern over the possible negative repercussions on cohesion policy; believes that the uncer-
tainty surrounding the financing of structural policies might further undermine citizens' confidence in the
European project;

3.
Urges the European Council to take a decision as early as possible, and in any event before the end of
2005, in order to ensure that an adequate period is allowed to European regions and Member States for the
preparation of the new operational programmes;

4.
Requests that during the new period, wherever there is a reference to economic and social cohesion,
reference also be made to the concept of territorial cohesion and that special attention be paid to devel-
oping this new concept;

Rejects any significant modification to the overall architecture of the Commission proposal and in

5.
particular any attempt to renationalise all or part of the Union's regional policy (Title 1);

Calls for statistical effect regions to have a funding level of 85 % of the resources provided to the full

6.
convergence regions at the beginning of the funding period, which will reduce to 60 % by 2013;

Rejects any attempt to diminish the importance of a strong ‘Regional competitiveness and employ-
7.
ment’ objective and approves of its concentration on accessibility, research and development, education and
training, employment and social inclusion and the information society; calls for these priorities to be closely
coordinated with other Community programmes and policies, and in particular the Lisbon Strategy;

Calls for the extension of eligibility of the natural effect regions also to apply to ‘convergence’ objective
8.
actions, without any corresponding increase in Community funds intended for these regions (Article 6,
paragraph 2);

9.
Underlines the importance of having a structure of three strands in the new European territorial
cooperation objective, comprising transnational, cross-border and interregional cooperation; calls, therefore,
for the inclusion of interregional cooperation as an independent component of this objective similar to the
current Interreg IIIc programme;

Believes that the overall budget for the ‘European territorial cooperation’ objective should be main-
10.
tained and stresses the importance of that objective and, with regard to the allocation of resources, calls for
a substantial shift in priorities towards cross-border cooperation (Article 18(a));

Opposes the imposition of an arbitrary 150 km limit for defining maritime regions eligible for cross-
11.
border cooperation programmes and calls, moreover, for special measures to be taken to ensure that regions
at the periphery of EU territory can participate in these programmes; in any event believes that this distance
criterion should be waived when the NUTS level III regions in question border the same sea;

(1) OJ C 104 E, 30.4.2004, p. 1000.

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12.
Rejects any weakening of the principle of partnership as envisaged in the original proposal, especially
in terms of strategic planning and monitoring of the programmes; calls particularly for the maintenance of
the list of appropriate bodies (Article 10(1)(c);

13.
Calls on the Member States to strengthen links with regional, local and urban partners in order to
make optimum use of their specific knowledge both in the preparation of programmes and in their imple-
mentation; advocates in this context, moreover, maximum decentralisation of powers in order to avoid
excessive administrative work (Article 10);

14.
Calls for an extension of the principle of equality between men and women so as to ensure non-
discrimination on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual
orientation, and that, in particular, accessibility for disabled persons is a condition of benefiting from the
Funds and is monitored during the various stages of implementing the Funds (Article 14);

15.
Calls for the evaluation of the Funds also to include indications of the progress achieved in promot-
ing equality between men and women and social inclusion, as well as in the fight against all forms of
discrimination;

Calls on Member States and the Commission to affirm that the protection and improvement of the

16.
environment will be promoted during the various stages of implementing the funds;

17.
Calls for all attempts to adjust the proposed financial framework, including both global resources and
the breakdown of resources between the various objectives and their components, to be rejected most
vigorously and, irrespective of this point, considers that the amounts proposed by the Commission for the
allocation of resources between the various objectives represent a fair balance of interests (Articles 15-22);

18.
Considers that, given the serious need for structural funding for many EU regions in the new pro-
gramming period, all resources allocated to cohesion policy should be spent for this purpose; calls, there-
fore, for the possibility of re-using unspent resources due to the N+2 rules within Sub-heading 1b for the
regions that are in a position to absorb them on the basis of the principles of effectiveness and fairness;

19.
Calls for a political solution providing for special compensation to be established for those regions or
Member States facing substantial financial losses due to the disparities caused by the implementation of the
Commission proposal regarding the allocation of financial resources;

20.
Regards the Commission's proposal to allocate EUR 336,1 billion at 2004 prices to support the three
priorities of the revised cohesion policy as the bare minimum needed to make the reform a success and
takes the view that once the next Financial Perspectives have been adopted the Commission will confirm the
figures set out in the proposal for a regulation;

21.
Points out that the funds are subject to the provisions of the Financial Regulation and emphasises the
need for the Commission and Member States to apply the transparency and sound financial management
rules;

22.
Calls for the maintenance of clear and comprehensive Community strategic guidelines on cohesion
which must be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 161 of the EC Treaty; calls
moreover for any mid-term review to be carried out under the same procedure unless the Treaty establish-
ing a Constitution for Europe has come into force, in which case Article III-223 must be applied so as to
allow for the legislative codecision of Parliament (Article 23-24);

Calls for the inclusion of the Decisions on the trans-European transport network (‘TEN-T’) (Decision

23.
No 884/2004/EC (1) and Decision No 1692/96/EC (2)), in Article 23(3);

24.
Calls for the proposal for a regulation to include a stronger link to the European sustainable devel-
opment strategy (Article 23); calls, in this context, for Member States to demonstrate in the national strategic
reference framework how they intend to finance the needs of the environment, in particular supporting the
Natura 2000 network,
implementing the Water Framework Directive and achieving Kyoto targets, from
Community resources or from own resources (Article 25);

(1) OJ L 167, 30.4.2004, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 228, 9.9.1996, p. 1.

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25.
Reiterates its demand for a balanced and fair financial treatment for areas suffering from severe and
permanent natural, climatic or demographic handicaps such as islands, mountainous and border areas and
sparsely populated regions, particularly the very thinly populated northern areas of the Union (Recital 12);
Calls also for the inclusion of a reference to these areas under the thematic and territorial priorities to be
specified in the strategic section of the national strategic reference framework (Article 25);

26.
Calls for the new Member States of Malta and Cyprus, in order for them to tackle specific problems
they are confronted with as islands on the periphery of the European Union, to receive adequate financial
support on the basis of insularity, peripherality, and the principle of equal treatment;

27.
Strongly supports the special action of EUR 1100 million for the outermost regions proposed by the
Commission, as well as the possibility of financing operating aid, as provided in Article 11 of the proposal
for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Regional Development
Fund (COM(2004)0495); calls for full practical expression to be given to the requirement laid down in
Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty for the outermost regions to be treated as a special case as regards their
access to the Structural Funds, including those regions whose GDP has already risen above 75 % of the
Community average;

28.
Calls for the maintenance of a national strategic reference framework which is prepared in close
cooperation with the partners referred to in Article 10 and which must remain the subject of a Commission
decision negotiated within the framework of the partnership (Article 26);

Calls for the inclusion of the possibility for the national strategic reference framework to be revised

29.
(Article 26);

30.
Calls for a simplification of the strategic follow-up so that there is reporting by the Member States
and the Commission every two years (Articles 27 and 28); calls in this context for a debate every two years
in a strategic forum involving Parliament, the Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the Member
States (Article 29);

31.
Calls in the context of the single Fund per programme approach, for an increase from 5 % to 10 % as
a limit up to which either the ESF or the ERDF may fund measures falling within the scope of the other
Fund (Article 33); however, suggests that in certain circumstances the Commission may grant approval for
the same management authority to preside over more than one intervention, but that the 10 % limit should
still apply;

Calls, in order to highlight the urban dimension and in particular sustainable urban development, for
32.
structural fund financed operational programmes under the ‘Convergence’ and ‘Regional competitiveness
and employment’ objectives to maintain the requirement for information to be submitted on the approach
to the urban issue, including the list of urban areas chosen and the procedures for sub-delegation; calls for
such procedures to be placed in the context of regional and local partnership; considers that the level of
funding must be at least equivalent to that for which urban areas are eligible under the current regulation
(Article 36);

33.
Calls for the three Funds to take account of the priorities of small and micro enterprises, particularly
craft enterprises, given their importance for cohesion and regional development and their contribution to
growth and employment, and to support the implementation of the principles and action lines of the
European Charter for Small Enterprises adopted by the Feira European Council in 2000;

Considers that Member States should specify the arrangements for the Strategic Environmental
34.
Assessment of national strategic reference frameworks and operational programmes, and ensure timely
Environmental Impact Assessments of the major infrastructure projects; further calls on the Commission
to ensure that major infrastructure projects do not conflict with the protection and improvement of the
environment (Articles 38 to 40); calls for payments to projects undertaken in breach of EU environmental
legislation to be suspended;

35.
Calls for a coherent approach and the maintenance of Structural Funds procedures when the current
neighbourhood programmes are transformed into programmes under the new cooperation instruments for
the external borders of the Union (ENPI and IPA);

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36.
Calls for the retention of the proposal for a Community reserve for quality and performance as a
mechanism for rewarding progress including the Cohesion Fund; calls, however, for fair, objective, trans-
parent and jointly adopted criteria to apply, so as to ensure that it genuinely achieves this purpose (Arti-
cle 48);

37.
Calls for an explicit requirement and recognition of the principle and practice of accessibility for
disabled persons in the strategic guidelines and in the evaluation process required by the strategic guidelines;

38.
Calls for Member States which so wish to be able to make provision for a national contingency
reserve and recommends that greater flexibility be introduced into the means of its implementation (Arti-
cle 49);

39.
Rejects pressure to change the proposed co-financing rates (Article 51), but calls for a doubling of the
permitted increase to 10 percentage points for those areas suffering from more than one of the geographical
or natural handicaps defined in the proposal; calls also for the introduction of an increase of 10 percentage
points for urban areas (Article 52);

40.
Strongly supports all the incentives that are given for the mobilisation of private capital and the
promotion of public-private partnerships in the new programming period (Articles 50(d) and 54); considers
that the calculation of the Community co-financing rate as a percentage of only the declared public expen-
diture constitutes an important simplifying proposal of this Regulation and better ensures the application of
the principle of additionality, disregarding whether public expenditure of the co-financing rate of the
Member State could be partly replaced by private capital within the programme; calls, at the same time,
for the maintenance of the flexibility provided by the calculation of the co-financing rate for each priority
and not for each measure (Articles 51 and 76); stresses, however, that the calculation of the co-financing rate
should not be such as to prejudice the participation of NGOs and other not-for-profit organisations in
Structural Fund activities;

Draws particular attention to the fact that all EU policies must be required to contribute to the
41.
objective of economic and social cohesion and that international trade policy is also committed to this
objective and must not be regarded as an exception; calls for trade policy to be designed to avoid producing
shock effects on regions and draws particular attention to the fact that the relocation of firms or production
units represents a serious threat to regional development;

42.
Considers that the Commission proposal to impose financial corrections on firms that relocate their
activities is an indispensable measure, in order not to put in jeopardy the consolidation of economic, social
and territorial cohesion in the affected regions; proposes the establishment of monitoring systems in order
to quantify the economic and social costs of any relocation so that appropriate penalties may be set accord-
ingly; calls, at the same time, for the adoption of all necessary legal measures to ensure that firms which
receive Community funding do not relocate for a long and predetermined period;

Calls for a provision whereby co-financing of operations, which result in substantial job losses or the

43.
closure of plants at their existing locations, will be ruled out;

Calls for the inclusion of a reference to the need for a high level of project management skills and
44.
qualifications as an essential element in ensuring that projects are delivered on time and on budget (Arti-
cle 57);

Calls for the proportionality principle to be applied effectively to programming (Articles 31 to 37),
45.
evaluation (Article 45) and management, monitoring and controls (Articles 57 to 73) in accordance with the
size of the programmes; considers, moreover, that in these areas the principle of simplification must be
applied to all programmes in the interests of all the Member States;

46.
Notes that the Commission and the Member States have joint responsibility for the Structural Funds;
calls on the Member States to make annual declarations of assurance that EU taxpayers' money has been
spent in a regular, legal and transparent manner; calls for these declarations to be signed by the finance
minister of each Member State; the Commission should define clearly what it means by ‘irregularity’ for
reporting purposes by Member States;

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47.
Calls for the spirit of the proposed limits in respect of proportional control arrangements (33 % co-
financing and EUR 250 million cost) below which no systematic controls are undertaken by the Commis-
sion to be maintained; calls nevertheless for the specific characteristics of the different funds to be taken
into account (Article 73);

48.

Rejects any change to the proposed pre-financing amounts (Article 81);

49.
Rejects any further weakening of the N+2 rule for the Structural Funds beyond the flexibility already
proposed for major projects, since the benefits of this rule have been demonstrated through its effectiveness
in improving the efficient implementation of Funds over the current programming period (Article 93); calls,
however, for greater flexibility to be allowed for the Cohesion Fund;

50.
Calls for greater flexibility to be introduced so as to extend the proposed two-month deadline for
Member States to challenge financial corrections by the Commission; calls for this time-limit to be varied in
accordance with the seriousness of the problem at issue (Article 100);

51.
Asks the Commission to find, in cooperation with the cohesion countries, a solution with regard to
the issue of the eligibility of non-reimbursable VAT, ensuring straightforward accessibility for municipalities
to Funds;

52.
Rejects any attempt to introduce expenses which do not relate to investment, such as housing costs,
as eligible expenditure for the purposes of calculating Community co-financing; considers, however, that
expenses which relate to renovation of social housing with a view to saving energy and protecting the
environment should be included within eligible expenditure;

53.
Rejects any reduction in the ceilings for State aids to convergence regions, including those subject to
the statistical effect; calls, therefore, for all regions covered by the ‘Convergence’ objective also to be given
equal treatment in terms of aid rules and to come under Article 87(3)(a) of the EC Treaty; calls moreover for
a gradual transition in aid ceilings for the natural effect regions; stresses the need for the maintenance of
territorial differentiation, with particular regard to natural or geographical handicaps, in the application of
State aids to regions outside of the ‘Convergence’ objective;

Instructs its President to request further discussion with the Council pursuant to Rule 75(3) of its

54.
Rules of Procedure;

55.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

P6_TA(2005)0278

Cohesion Fund

European Parliament resolution on the proposal for a Council Regulation establishing a Cohesion
Fund (COM(2004)0494 — 2004/0166(AVC))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the proposal for a Council Regulation (COM(2004)0494 — 2004/0166(AVC)) (1),

— having regard to Article 161 of the EC Treaty,

— having regard to its resolution of 22 April 2004 on the third report on economic and social cohe-

sion (2),

— having regard to its resolution of 8 June 2005 on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the
enlarged Union 2007-2013 (3) and in particular the opinion of the Committee on Regional Devel-
opment on this subject, and to the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the
European Parliament on the Financial Perspectives 2007-2013 (COM(2004)0487),

(1) Not yet published in OJ.
(2) OJ C 104 E, 30.4.2004, p. 1000.
(3) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0224.