Council and Parliament made some progress at yesterday’s trilogue negotiations on the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) on the issue of co-financing rates.
With the compromise reached, the Commission’s proposed reduction of the co-financing rates to 70 percent for less developed regions, 55 percent for transitional regions and 40 percent for more developed regions was softened.
Co-financing rates for less developed and transition regions are now to remain at the current level of 85 percent and 60 percent EU contribution. More developed regions are to receive 40 percent EU subsidies in future, as proposed by the Commission. The Council was not ready to make any concessions here.
However, we were able to ensure that regions moving up in the classification of regional categories and therefore have to make a greater contribution of their own, will be supported with an additional 10 percent. This would mean, for example, the EU contribution for current transition regions that will be classified as more developed regions from 2021 will lift to 50 instead of 40 percent.
Agreement was also reached on the EU share in the Interreg programme. Here, EU co-financing will be 80 percent in the next funding period. The Commission had proposed 70 percent; the Council demanded for 80 percent, the Parliament for 85 percent.
It was possible yesterday to ensure that there will be no cuts in co-financing in less developed and transition regions, although Commission and Council had partly called for this. The introduction of a “safety net” of 10 percent is a success for the Parliament in the hard fight for more support in the regions.
The current sticking point of this negotiating package are the regulations on the transfer of funds, e.g. between funds as well as between regional categories. Furthermore, seamless financing between the funding periods remains essential for the regions. Thus, I have submitted a priority question to the Commission. In order to provide security for the regions, I still call for transitional arrangements.
