Regional Development MEPs approve EU help scheme for growth enhancing reforms

An EU scheme offering EU member states technical help with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was backed by the Regional Development Committee on Tuesday.

The Structural Reform Support Programme would work at the request of member states and be subject to a Commission decision. It would provide technical assistance to improve national institutional and administrative capacities to carry out , with a total budget of almost €142.8 million for 2017-2020.

Co-rapporteur Constanze Krehl i (S&D, DE) said: “Our main idea was to give the possibility to member states to get technical support in a quick and unbureaucratic way. Furthermore, this new programme had to be aligned closely with the aims of the EU cohesion policy, since means for this assistance will come from the European Structural and Investment Funds’ allocations”.

Co-rapporteur Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, NL) said: “With this programme, member states can be supported in their structural and administrative reforms, which are necessary for more jobs and growth. In order to strengthen the programme, the Regional Development Committee has also included proposals to ensure more transparency for the implementation of the programme”.

Forms of assistance

The technical support for member states and their national, regional and local authorities would be provided in policy areas such as public financial management, administration, labour markets, education and training, social security systems, migration and agriculture. It would take the form of supporting actions (including drawing on local expertise), such as seminars, working visits, training actions, collecting data and statistics, studies, and research.

Next steps

The draft resolution and negotiating mandate were approved by 29votes, to 11. MEPs will start now negotiations with the Council in order to reach an early agreement.

Background

As part of the November 2015 European Semester package, the European Commission proposed a regulation establishing the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) 2017-2020. Structural reforms were identified as one of the priority areas in the Annual

Growth Survey for 2016, which launched the annual cycle of EU economic policy coordination.

The financial envelope for the programme is up to €142.8 million from technical assistance allocations under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds), with up to €112 million redirected under the global resources of the cohesion

policy funds and up to €30 million from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

REF. : 20161128IPR53463