Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-091"
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"en.20090324.3.2-091"2
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"Regional policy, which has materialised in the form of Structural and Cohesion Funds, is rightly regarded as the most visible and tangible Community policy for the citizens of Europe. No other policy provides as much visibility for the European Union or illustrates the benefits of integration better. That is why we attach such importance to the debate on the future of cohesion. Cohesion has never been needed as much as it is now, when the two halves of Europe, separated after the war by the iron curtain, have come together. This is extremely important to the countries that were relegated to the background under the Yalta Agreement. The crisis, and the potential value of the Structural Funds as anti-crisis packages, is a special aspect.
We cannot repeat the 2008 situation, when EUR 4.5 billion of unused funds were reimbursed. That was a joint failure by all of us. This alone makes it paramount that we let this part of the EU budget through today. In the short term, other matters can be postponed; in the longer term, we must defend cohesion policy as a Community policy that gives all regions a chance. As such, cohesion policy needs to defer to regional and local knowledge regarding the best way of managing funding. Additional criteria for evaluating projects will increase the level of discretion in their evaluation, and thereby complicate the process of using the funds. This makes sense neither today, in the face of the crisis, nor in the longer term."@en1
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