Nemzeti
Fejlesztési Ügynökség

On the first day of the conference Tamás Fellegi, Minister for National Development said that we were on the right track to create consensus on cohesion policy among the member states by the end of the Hungarian EU Presidency. Member States agree that cohesion policy is needed and it must be carried on. Similarly, there is an agreement that the future of cohesion policy is strongly connected to the EU2020 strategy. He highlighted that these two were not the same as cohesion policy was a tool that comprised multiple areas and included competitiveness aims, growth and regional cohesion. He added that EU’s budget debate would start soon and it would also have a major impact on cohesion policy. The most important goal of the Hungarian Presidency now is to take considerable steps towards a political and professional consensus on the core cohesion policy principles before embarking on discussions about the next fiscal cycle of the EU. Therefore he proclaimed that the main goal of the two day conference was to conclude professional agreements that could form the basis of draft EU legislations.

Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy said that the European Commission would publish its ideas about the future of cohesion policy in June, after it presented its budget proposal. Based on the successes of past years the Commissioner thinks that cohesion policy is an important tool of investments and as a consequence in the next period we have to concentrate on the effectiveness of funds use. Development grants have to be spent in a more concentrated manner, in a limited number of areas. Grant use regulations have to be simplified on EU, national and regional level alike.

Danuta Hübner, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee for Regional Development said that cooperation between the European Parliament and the Hungarian Presidency was excellent. She emphasized that the Union needed growth and restructuring and this aim required investments. She said that budgetary sources for cohesion purposes should not change compared to the past.

Róbert Homolya, Vice President of the National Development Agency highlighted that EU cohesion funds were a main contribution to the growth of Hungary's economy in economic development and creation of new jobs. The question today is not if Hungary can spend the available EU funds, but if it can use these funds effectively. The precondition of the successful drawdown is the implementation of a strategic approach. In Hungary cohesion funds contributed to the fulfilment of the obligations taken at the EU accession including obligations related to waste management, drinking water treatment and wastewater disposal. For example 60% of all settlements and 40% of the population in Hungary are directly affected by waste management development related projects.
The vice president also cited best practices of integrated developments in Hungary. The cohesion programme for the most disadvantaged micro-regions (LHH Programme) was an intervention package that included the sources of multiple operational programmes and that was devised to solve interconnected, regional problems, Homolya said.

After the plenary sessions the two day meeting's conclusions were drawn by Zsuzsanna Kondor, Head of Coordination Managing Authority of the National Development Agency. Member states agreed that flexibility should be allowed for Member States and regions in selecting tools to reach EU goals with. Participants agreed that the application of alternative implementation solutions is advisable. Participants did not challenge the necessity of a result-oriented approach in cohesion policy. However, to start the programs of the next cycle on time, implementation aspects of the system of conditionalities and incentives have to be clarified promptly. It was agreed that it is important that conditionalities should be understood in the same way by all involved actors. Delegates formulated their concerns regarding the possibility of developing different conditionality systems for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund. Delegates accepted to link with the goals of the EU2020 Strategy, but highlighted that a more balanced solution should be sought. The original goals of the cohesion policy cannot be pushed into the background and the implementation of an overly sector based system has to be avoided. Participants stated that if structural conditionalities would be defined, these have to be directly linked to cohesion policy. It was suggested that in case obvious causal relationships would be difficult to establish, setting success factors in the Partnership Contract and in operative programmes would be more favourable without imposing any forms of financial sanctions. It is also important that fulfilment or non-performance of conditionalities could be assessed objectively. Participants were unambiguously against introducing further negative incentives and instead supported the use of positive incentives. The question of performance reserve came up in relation to this, and solutions at national level were unequivocally favoured in this regard.

Györgyi Nyikos, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of National Development and the host of the conference said in her epilogue that on 21 February 2011 the General Affairs Council voted in favour of the Council Conclusions, and there was a progress towards a consensus in connection with the questions regarding the further dialogue defined in the Conclusions. This consensus may help the Commission in determining how to apply the principles shared by the member states and regions in the most appropriate form. Based on the concluded dialogue the Hungarian Presidency has enough ammunition to continue the discussion of the questions raised at the informal ministerial meeting. She said that at the end of its presidency Hungary wishes to hand over the issue to the Polish Presidency with a summary of the interpretation work done by the Council, the other considerations of the conference, and the main policies of the member states learnt at the informal meeting, thereby helping its work. She highlighted that it was the cohesion policy, which would effectively contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy and to Europe's success in the globalised world. She emphasized that decreasing development differences of the regions would enable less developed regions to be part of the intelligent, sustainable and inclusive development.

Conference participants were representatives of the EU member states, the candidate states, the EFTA states, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, OECD and EBB.