Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance and financial engineering’ COM(2011) 483 final — 2011/0210 (COD)
Date: 2011-10-27
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Structural Funds, economic and social cohesion, financial instrument, reimbursement of aid








C_2012024EN.01007801.xml










28.1.2012   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 24/78





Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance and financial engineering’
COM(2011) 483 final — 2011/0210 (COD)
2012/C 24/14
Rapporteur-General: Mr SMYTH

On the 2 September and 5 October 2011 respectively, the Council and the European Parliament decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under Article 177 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance and financial engineering

COM(2011) 483 final 2011/0210 (COD).
On 20 September 2011 the Committee Bureau instructed the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion to prepare the Committee's work on the subject.
Given the urgent nature of the work, the European Economic and Social Committee appointed Mr SMYTH as rapporteur-general at its 475th plenary session, held on 26 and 27 October 2011 (meeting of 27 October 2011), and adopted the following opinion by 87 votes to zero with 7 abstentions.
1.   Conclusions and recommendations







1.1


The EESC notes the Commission's proposal to amend Regulation 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance and financial engineering, which seeks to offer needed clarity and legal certainty.










1.2


The EESC approves the proposal.




2.   Reason







2.1


Article 28 of Council Regulation (EC) 1260/1999, which regulated the structural funds and cohesion policy for the period 2000-2006, identified various forms of assistance, including repayable and non repayable direct assistance, that could be provided through the EU structural funds. Article 44 of the general Council Regulation (EC) 1083/2006 for cohesion policy which lays down the rules for the current programming period (2007 – 2013) deals with financial engineering instruments, but does not, however, contain adequate legal language defining assistance, either repayable or non-repayable.










2.2


Member States are using repayable forms of assistance quite extensively, certainly after the positive experiences they had with this instrument during the previous programming period (2000-2006).










2.3


It has therefore proved to be necessary to amend Council Regulation (EC) 1083/2006 to include a general definition of repayable assistance, and as regards financial engineering to clarify a number of technical practices as currently revolving forms of finance are being used for a wider range of activities than simple financial engineering.





Brussels, 27 October 2011.


The President of the European Economic and Social Committee

Staffan NILSSON