Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-23-Speech-4-046-000"
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"en.20110623.5.4-046-000"2
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".
Mr President, I want to begin by saying that I would very much like to have two minutes speaking time for my closing remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, the European Union is a Europe of solidarity and it is also the advocate for the European regions. Today, the European Parliament is sending out a strong signal to our regions. We want to help the weakest regions to establish better connections. We are providing support for the border regions, so that Europe can become more cohesive, and we want to use the potential of all the regions to make Europe more competitive.
Even though the economic and financial crisis has eclipsed many of these activities, European structural policy will continue to provide a strong stimulus for growth and employment. There will be a significant need for action after 2013 because of the challenge of demographic change, the changing structure of the economy, failings in our transport systems, the beginning of the age of regenerative energies and an increase in social discrepancies.
The art of structural policy will lie in enabling the regions to innovate in order to meet these challenges and helping them to help themselves. At the same time, Europe needs the regional potential to be able to implement the Europe 2020 strategy and to ensure that it is a success. We must make sure that we have appropriate funding for all these tasks. Therefore, we will oppose all attempts to abolish our successful structural policy, by means of renationalisation, new climate or employment funds or whatever other centralisation measures Brussels may be planning. We want to strengthen the principle of multi-level governance. The responsibility of the regions for implementing European objectives brings added value in itself.
We have made a series of proposals in the report as to how Europe can increase this added value even further. We are calling for more resources to improve the infrastructure in our border regions and to strengthen the Trans-European Networks. We want to invest more in the future of our cities and our rural areas and we are calling for the programmes to be better coordinated. It is likely that a majority in Parliament will be in favour of an intermediate category with high subsidy rates for less disadvantaged regions. I would like to advise against this, because it will turn phasing-out into sleeping-out, which the Council cannot afford.
We are also introducing improved proposals for more efficiency and transparency. It is very important for us to ensure that tougher conditions are attached to the allocation of funding. EU law must be implemented before EU money is made available. This applies to public procurement and to price regulation. We also want to see significantly stricter controls on the allocation of subsidy funding. If we do not finally and regularly name and shame the Member States where the majority of fraud is taking place, we will lose our credibility.
We are calling for greater commitment from the Commission on monitoring the use of funding. Mr Lewandowski, please do not place too much trust in the Member States. Take responsibility yourself for the accreditation of national inspection authorities and Parliament will give you its support.
Finally, I would like to draw the Commission’s attention to a few points which are not made in the report. In contrast to the draft report, we are no longer calling for a reduction in cofinancing, but, and this is the point I would like to make, we are also not calling for an increase. The report also no longer includes our proposal for the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and the European Social Fund to be merged. However, please note that we also do not want an independent European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. Please take these two examples as proof of the fact that Parliament is much more in favour of reform than the report might suggest. We need reform of our structural policy to ensure that the EU remains strong.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I have enjoyed working on the report overall. However, I was annoyed about the many occurrences of self-interested nationalism which unfortunately are also reflected in this report. I am keen to see how this is handled in the vote. Thank you very much for your attention."@en1
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