CELEX: 51992PC0599(01)
Language: en
Date: 1992-12-23
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) establishing a cohesion financial instrument

No C 38 / 18                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                   12 . 2 . 93
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
                  Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) establishing a cohesion financial instrument
                                                       (93 /C 38 / 14)
                                                    COM(92) 599 final
                                    (Submitted by the Commission on 5 January 1993)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ,                        Whereas      the   financial  resources   of   the financial
                                                                  instrument should be those provided for the cohesion
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            fund in the financial perspectives for the general budget
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235                of the European Communities for the years for which
thereof,                                                         the financial instrument applies ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               Whereas the promotion of economic and social cohesion
                                                                 calls for a concentration of the funds available to the
                                                                 cohesion financial instrument on projects concerning the
Having regard to the opinion of the European                     environment and transport infrastructure of common
Parliament,                                                      interest in Member States with a per capita GNP of less
                                                                 than 90 % of the Community average ;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,
                                                                 Whereas the implementation of convergence
                                                                 programmes designed to avoid excessive government
Whereas Article 130 a of the Treaty provides for the             deficits is a necessary condition for progress towards
Community to develop and pursue its actions leading to           economic and monetary union ;
the strengthening of its economic and social cohesion
and in particular for it to aim at reducing disparities
between the various regions and the backwardness of the          Whereas Title IV of Part Two of the Treaty provides
least-favoured regions ;                                         that the Council shall lay down any appropriate
                                                                 provisions to implement a common transport policy ;
Whereas promoting economic and social cohesion calls             whereas the Community should make a contribution,
for Community action to supplement the activities of the         through the cohesion financial instrument, to trans­
Structural Funds, the European Investment Bank (EIB)             European networks in the area of transport infra­
and other financial instruments in the fields of the             structure ;
environment and of transport infrastructure of common
interest ;                                                       Whereas Article 130 r of the Treaty defines the
                                                                 objectives of the Community in the field of the
Whereas the European Council, at its meeting in                  environment; whereas the Community should contribute,
Edinburgh on 11 and 12 December 1992, proposed                   through the cohesion financial instrument, to action
creating an interim financial instrument pending the             designed to achieve these objectives in accordance with
establishment of a cohesion fund ;                               Article 130 s of the Treaty ;
Whereas, given The conclusions of the European Council           Whereas, in the light of an undertaking by the Member
and given the impossibility of implementing, on the basis        States concerned not to decrease their investment efforts
of Article 235 of the EEC Treaty, the set of conditions          in the fields of environmental protection and transport
which are linked to Article 104 c of the draft Treaty on         infrastructure, additionality in the sense of Article 9 of
European Union, the financial instrument should be of a          Council Regulation (EEC) No 4253/ 88 of 19 December
temporary nature ; whereas it should be replaced as soon         1988 laying down provisions for implementing Regu­
as possible by the cohesion fund as envisaged in Article         lation (EEC) No 2052/ 88 as regards coordination of the
130 d of the draft Treaty and should in any event be             activities of the different Structural Funds between them­
reexamined before 31 December 1993 in the light of the           selves and with the operations of the European
process of ratifying the draft Treaty;                           Investment      Bank     and    other    existing  financial
 ---pagebreak--- 12 . 2 . 93                               Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 38 / 19
instruments (') will not apply to the cohesion financial                 Treaty, including projects resulting from measures
instrument ;                                                             adopted pursuant to Article 130 s of the Treaty,
Whereas it is necessary to coordinate action taken in the           — transport infrastructure projects of common interest
fields of the environment and of trans-European                          financed by Member States which promote the inter­
transport networks through the cohesion financial                        connection and interoperability of national networks
instrument, the Structural Funds, the European                           and access to such networks, taking account in
Investment Bank and the other financial instruments in                   particular of the need to link insular, landlocked or
order to enhance the effectiveness of Community                          peripheral regions with the central regions of the
operations ;                                                             Community, in particular the projects which are
                                                                         provided for in trans-European network schemes
Whereas, with a view to helping Member States in the                     which have been adopted by the Council or proposed
preparation of projects, the Commission should be in a                   by the Commission in accordance with Title IV of
position to supply the necessary technical support ;                     Part Two of the Treaty,
Whereas the operations of the cohesion financial
instrument must be consistent with Community policies,              — preparatory studies and technical support measures
inter alia, those regarding environmental protection,                    related to eligible projects .
transport, competition and the award of public contracts ;
                                                                                                Article 3
Whereas an indicative allocation of commitment appro­
priations between the Member States should be provided                                     Financial resources
for in order to facilitate the programming of projects ;
Whereas it is necessary, given the requirements of                  The commitment appropriations for the financial
                                                                    instrument shall be ECU 1 500 million in 1993 and ECU
economic and social cohesion, to provide a high rate of
assistance ;                                                         1 750 million in 1994, expressed in 1992 prices.
Whereas, in the interests of the proper management of                                           Article 4
the cohesion financial instrument, the provisions
contained in Titles VI and VII of Regulation (EEC) No                                     Indicative allocation
4253 / 88 should be applied where appropriate and by
analogy ;                                                           In order to facilitate the planning of assistance in the
                                                                    Member States concerned the Commission shall on the
Whereas provision should be made to give adequate                   basis of an indicative allocation of the total resources of
publicity to Community assistance provided by the                   the financial instrument, establish the commitment
cohesion financial instrument ;                                     appropriations for each Member State. The indicative
                                                                    allocation shall principally be based on population, GNP
Whereas, for the adoption of this Regulation, the Treaty            per capita and surface area ; it shall also take account of
provides for no other powers than those contained in                other socio-economic factors , such as deficiencies in
Article 235 ,                                                       transport infrastructure.
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
                                                                                                Article 5
                             Article 1
                                                                                           Rate of assistance
                    Definition and scope
A cohesion financial instrument (hereinafter referred to             1 . The rate of assistance granted by the financial
 as 'the financial instrument') is hereby established,              instrument shall be 80 to 85 % of public or similar
whereby the Community shall provide financial contri­                expenditure as defined for the purposes of the Structural
                                                                     Funds .
butions to projects in the fields of the environment and
 trans-European transport infrastructure networks in
 Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, each of which shall            2 . Preliminary studies and technical support measures
 have a convergence programme examined by the                        necessary for the implementation of eligible projects may
 Council, designed to avoid an excessive governmeni                  be financed at 100 % .
 deficit.
                                                                                                Article 6
                             Article 2
                                                                     Coordination and compatibility with Community policies
                        Eligible project!
 The financial instrument may provide support for :                   1 . Projects financed by the financial instrument shal
                                                                     be in keeping with the provisions of the Treaties, wit!
— environmental projects contributing to thf                         the instruments adopted pursuant thereto and with
     achievement of the objectives of Article 130 r of tht           Community policies, including those concerning environ­
                                                                     mental protection, transport, competition and the aware
 (') OJ No L 374 , 31 . 12 . 1988 , p . 1                            of public contracts .
 ---pagebreak---  No C 38 /20                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                 12 . 2 . 93
2.     The Commission shall ensure coordination and              — the contribution which projects can make to the
coherence between projects undertaken in pursuance of                 implementation of Community policies on the
this Regulation and measures undertaken with contri­                  environment and trans-European networks,
butions from the Community budget, the EIB and the
other financial instruments of the Community.                    — the compatibility of projects with Community policies
                                                                      and their consistency with other Community
                                                                      structural measures .
                          Article 7
               Combination and overlapping                       6.     Subject to the availability of commitment appropri­
                                                                 ations , the Commission shall decide on assistance from
 1 . No item of expenditure may benefit both from the            the financial instrument generally within three months of
financial instrument and from the European Agricultural          receipt of an application . Commission decisions
Guidance and Guarantee Fund, the European Social                 approving projects or groups of related projects shall
Fund or the European Regional Development Fund.                  determine the amount of financial support, a financing
                                                                 plan and all the provisions and conditions necessary for
2. Where a project benefits from other Community                 the realization of the projects .
assistance, the combined assistance granted by the
Community shall not exceed 90 % of total expenditure             7. The Commission decisions shall be published in the
                                                                  Official Journal of the European Communities.
                          Article 8
                                                                                            Article 9
                    Approval of projects
                                                                       Financial provisions, monitoring and assessment
1 . The projects to be financed under the financial
instrument shall be decided upon by the Commission in            In implementing this Regulation, the Commission shall
agreement with the Member State concerned.                       where appropriate and by analogy apply the relevant
                                                                 provisions of Titles VI and VII of Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                 4253 / 88 .
2.     The Member States concerned and the Commission
shall ensure an appropriate balance between projects in
the fields of the environment and transport infra­                                          Article 10
structure .
                                                                                   Information and publicity
3 . Applications for assistance in accordance with               1.     The Commission shall present an annual report on
Article 2 shall be submitted by the Member State                 the activities of the financial instrument to the Council,
concerned. Projects, including groups of related projects,       the European Parliament and the Economic and Social
shall be of a sufficient scale to have a significant impact      Committee .
in the field of environmental protection or in the
improvement of trans-European transport infrastructure           2.     Member States shall ensure that adequate publicity
networks .                                                       is given to the operations of the financial instrument with
                                                                 a view to making the general public aware of the role
4. Applications shall contain the following infor­               played by the Community in relation to projects. They
mation : the body responsible for implementation, the            shall consult the Commission on, and inform it about,
nature of the investment, its location and costs, the            the initiatives taken for this purpose.
timetable for implementation, the financing plan and the
total financing the Member State is seeking under the                                       Article 11
financial instrument and any other Community source.
                                                                                             Review
They shall also contain any information necessary to
show that the projects are in accordance with this               This Regulation shall be re-examined before 31
Regulation .                                                     December 1993 .
5 . The following criteria shall be employed to ensure                                      Article 12
the quality of the projects :
                                                                                        Entry into force
— their medium-term economic and social benefits, an
     assessment which shall be commensurate with the             This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 April 1993 .
    resources deployed ; this shall be made in the light of
    an analysis of costs and benefits,                           It shall remain in force for two years.
— the priorities established by the beneficiary Member           This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
     States,                                                     directly applicable in all Member States .