28-30 April Economic and Social Cohesion Forum

Date: 08/05/1997

MORE than 1,000 participants from all member states attended a forum organised by the European Commission to review the results of EU cohesion policy and discuss what improvements could be made.

SOCIAL Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn told the opening session that despite the growth of overall wealth, “the shaming fact is that poverty in our societies has actually increased”. Pointing out that one in ten of the potential European workforce was unemployed, he suggested that the EU's structural funds should be radically simplified.

THROUGH a series of workshops, the forum examined various aspects of EU cohesion policies, including their contribution to competitiveness and employment. Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies said afterwards that all the workshops had come to similar conclusions. There was a broad consensus that Union regional policy should in future be more transparent, less bureaucratic, based on fewer objectives, translated into fewer programmes, more streamlined in terms of procedures and payments, and more integrated.

PEOPLE, said Wulf-Mathies, were Europe's most important resource. “It is essential that within the context of the structural funds, we should do more for training and life-long learning, more to stimulate the employment market, more for the long-term development of skills and more to flesh out Community employment.”

THE weakest regions should remain the prime target for structural assistance in the future and receive the “lion's share” of funds, said the Commissioner. She added that the number of eligible areas needed to be curtailed to avoid spreading funding too thinly, but said clarification was still needed on whether geographical concentration could be replaced by focusing on a few topics and concentrating funding on a few programmes.

AGRICULTURE Commissioner Franz Fischler said the Union had to come up with a policy of sustainable rural development to help achieve cohesion, as rural areas were often among the poorest. Wulf-Mathies said that it was clear that not enough advantage had been taken of the synergies between agricultural and regional policy, but added that a better linkage between agricultural policy and structural measures alone would not be enough to ensure improved development of rural regions.

THE importance of measuring results was highlighted by forum participants. “We need transparent criteria for judging effectiveness and efficiency. Structural fund resources need to be seen less as entitlements and more as incentives to carrying out efficient structural schemes,” said Wulf-Mathies.