EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Committee on Petitions NOTICE TO MEMBERS

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN PARLIAMT Committee on Petitions NOTICE TO MEMBERS Subject: Petition 2761/2013 by Marek Suski and Wojciech Surkiewicz (Poland), bearing approximately signatures, on distribution of European funds in the Mazowieckie Voivodship (a region of Poland) 1. Summary of petition The Mazowieckie Voivodship has been divided, for the purpose of management of allocation of certain EU funds in the framework of the Regional Operational Program, into five subregions, two of them being the capital city of Warsaw and the town of Radom (population ) with its surroundings. The Petitioners believe that the subregion of Radom has been strongly handicapped by receiving in years approximately three times less money in the framework of this Regional Operational Program than Warsaw. They claim this situation to be contrary to the philosophy of coherence funds, where the most underdeveloped regions should be the most supported. 2. Admissibility Declared admissible on 20 January Information requested from Commission under Rule 216(6). 3. Commission reply, received on 31 March 2014 The petition raises the issue of the total allocation in the period for Mazowieckie as well as allocations at sub-regional level, taking into account disparities in terms of socioeconomic development between Warsaw and neighbouring disadvantaged sub-regions. CM\ doc PE v03-00 United in diversity

2 Total allocation for Mazowieckie as a more developed region According to criteria based on GDP per capita, laid down in Article 90 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 1 (the "CPR"), Mazowieckie became a more developed region in One of the main consequences of the change in the category of region is the capping of the maximum allowed allocation. In line with paragraph 14 of Annex VII to the CPR, for all regions whose GDP per capita (in PPS) was used as an eligibility criterion for the period and was less than 75% of the EU-25 average, but whose GDP per capita is above 75% of the EU-27 average, the minimum level of support in under the Investment for growth and jobs goal will correspond every year to 60% of their former indicative average annual allocation under the Convergence allocation, calculated by the Commission within the multiannual financial framework of However, according to Article 93(2) of the CPR, it is possible, in duly justified circumstances, to transfer up to 3% of the total appropriation for a category of regions to other categories of regions. Poland has made use of this provision and proposed in its Partnership Agreement to transfer 3% of its allocation, or EUR 1.5 billion, from less developed regions to the more developed region of Mazowieckie. The Commission has asked for more information concerning the use of the transferred funds. In practical terms, such a transfer would increase the allocation to Mazowieckie Region (taking into account all programmes i.e. the national programmes and the regional programme) from EUR 2.2 billion to EUR 3,7 billion. Allocations envisaged by Poland for the Regional Operational Programme amount to nearly EUR 2.1 billion. It should be noted that the whole country, including Mazowieckie, is eligible for support under the Cohesion Fund. Allocation at sub-regional level The future regional programme for Mazowieckie has not been submitted to the Commission and therefore has not been subject to assessment by the Commission. It is important to note that Article 90 of the CPR also states that the European Structural and Investment Funds support investment in regions corresponding to level 2 of the common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS2) in the Polish context the level of voivodship. Consistently, data on financial allocations communicated by the Commission to the Member States refer to categories of region defined at NUTS2 level. The same principle applies to the financial data required for the programmes, including the regional programme for Mazowieckie for This implies that there will not be financial data at a subregional level in the programming documents. 1 Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006. PE v /5 CM\ doc

3 Arguments raised in the petition are supported by the monitoring data gathered by the managing authority referring to the amount contracted by beneficiaries for Warsaw compared to surrounding sub-regions in the period. The same data suggests that, if the amounts contracted are calculated per inhabitant, the most advantageous local authorities are located in sub-regions. In this context, it is also important to remember that some of the institutions located in Warsaw, in particular research and development institutions, are important for the development of the whole region. The allocation for more developed regions is capped by the CPR; however, it is possible to use the 3% elasticity mechanism. Once the regional programme is submitted to the Commission, it will take into account the issue of intra-regional discrepancies within the regions, however without the resources for the sub-regions being pre-allocated. 4. Commission reply, received on 17 July 2015 The adopted regional programme for Mazowieckie ("the ROP") took into account the support for sub-regions (ciechanowski, płocki, ostrołęcki, siedlecki, radomski) identified as 'strategic intervention areas' in the Mazowieckie development strategy. The principles for selection of projects within the ROP envisage dedicated calls for proposals for projects resulting from subregional investment plans from both the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). In ESF priorities, there are additional 'preferential' points for projects from sub-regional investment plans. However, the resources for this purpose could not have been pre-allocated in the ROP (in line with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1301/2013, allocations were set up only for Integrated Territorial Investment). Table 1: List of investment priorities where dedicated calls for proposals at sub-regional level are possible Fund Investment priority Main types of actions supported ERDF 2c Development of public e-services ERDF 3a Support for SMEs; investment zones; business environment institutions ERDF 4a Support for renewable energy sources (RES) ERDF 4c Energy efficiency in buildings; production of electricity and heat in cogeneration ERDF 4e Heat distribution systems and urban mobility (within low emission strategies) ERDF 5b Flood and fire prevention ERDF 6a Waste management CM\ doc 3/5 PE v03-00

4 ERDF 6c Cultural heritage ERDF 6d Biodiversity ERDF 7b Regional mobility (roads) ERDF 9a Investment in healthcare ERDF 9b Revitalisation EFS 8i Active labour market policy measures EFS 8iv Equal opportunities at the labour market EFS 9i Social inclusion measures EFS 9iv Access to health services EFS 9v Social economy (enterprises) EFS 10i Education Mazowieckie will also benefit from national programmes: namely OP Smart Growth, OP Digital Poland, OP Infrastructure and Environment, OP Knowledge, Education, Development. Due to financing from the Cohesion Fund, the OP Infrastructure and Environment (OP I&E) is of particular importance as under the Cohesion Fund there are no 'envelopes' for categories of region. This means that infrastructural investment from the Cohesion Fund is not taken into account for capping the allocation for a more developed region. Section 12.2 of OP I&E contains an indicative list of 'major projects' as defined by Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013. The list includes investments benefiting Mazowieckie, among others: road S7 Warsaw Gdańsk; road S17 Warsaw Lublin; road S61 Ostrów Mazowiecka Augustów; road S12 Radom Lublin; railway No 7 Warsaw Dorohusk, section Otwock Dęblin Lublin; railway E20 section Sochaczew Swarzędz; railway No 44 Warsaw Grodzisk Mazowiecki; railway E20 Warsaw Minsk Mazowiecki; railway Modlin Płock. As an another example of territorial approach, it is worth mentioning that OP I&E granted an exception from the demarcation line allowing Mazowieckie to finance sewage investments in agglomerations between to p.e. (in other regions, only agglomerations above p.e. are to be financed). The adopted regional and national programmes took into account the specific territorial needs of Mazowieckie region. 5. Commission reply (REV II), received on 29 April 2016 Under the Regional Operational Programme for Mazowieckie (hereinafter called the ROP), an allocation of EUR 1,868,802,830 from the European Regional Development Fund has been made available (which includes extra resources added to the programme through the modification of 2011). This allocation is divided into eight thematic priority axes. PE v /5 CM\ doc

5 However, the ROP does not include specified allocations for various subregions or other territorial units within the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. The figures quoted by the Petitioners relate to the absorption of funds by beneficiaries from the various subregions of Mazowieckie. It reflects their participation in calls for proposals and their share of successful projects. The lower level of success of beneficiaries from the Radom subregion can be caused by many different factors, such as the lack of well-prepared projects, low capacity of the beneficiaries to apply for funding or the inappropriate design of project selection criteria. The Commission services support the competitive selection of projects, according to project selection criteria which contribute in the most effective way to the main objective of the ROP, which is the improvement of the region's competitiveness, as well as increasing the social, economic and spatial cohesion of the Voivodeship. Without very well targeted investments in the Radom subregion, supported by an appropriate amount of funding, such cohesion cannot be effectively achieved. It must be underlined, however, that the responsibility for the selection of projects lies with the Managing Authority of the ROP. This means that the Commission does not intervene in the selection of the projects (except for major projects), as this comes under the exclusive competence of the regional management authorities, provided that their choices are in line with the programming documents adopted in consultation with the Commission, and that they comply with the current legislation. Following the argumentation in the petition, and based on the information submitted by the petitioners, the Commission services cannot identify any breach of EU Law in the fact that the funds distributed to beneficiaries in the Mazowieckie region under the Regional Operational Programme have not benefitted the Radom subregion to the extent which would satisfy the petitioners. CM\ doc 5/5 PE v03-00