State Secretary Monika Kirbiš Rojs, MSc at the Forum of the Committee of the Regions in Brussels: “EU Cohesion Policy is one of the key instruments of the Europe 2020 Strategy”
Ljubljana, 10 May 2012 – State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Monika Kirbiš Rojs, MSc, attended the Forum of the Committee of the Regions which is focused on the Common Strategic Framework for Cohesion Policy, Rural Development and Fisheries funds for the period 2014-2020. The Strategic Framework, which was adopted by the European Commission on 14 March 2012, includes an overview of the priority programmes of structural funds (European Regional Fund and the European Social Fund) and the Cohesion Fund as well as the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The Forum is also attended by the European Commission for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn.
At the Forum of the Committee of the Regions – the latter represents the interests of the European regional and local authorities in the European Union – the State Secretary presented Slovenia’s position and expectations regarding the Common Strategic Framework. State Secretary Monika Kirbiš Rojs, MSc underlined that the Common Strategic Framework will give clearer priorities in the EU Member States and its regions regarding investments in the framework of the future programming period 2014–2020 and will, at the same time, enable better coordination of the funds with the objective of a more optimal use of the EU funds and greater coherence of various contents.
On the basis of the Strategic Framework the national and regional authorities will prepare drafts of partnership agreements with the European Commission and later also the operational programmes. The mentioned strategic document will enter into force three months after the adoption of the EU Cohesion Policy legislative package for the period 2014–2020 – the proposal of the legislative package was presented by the European Commission on 6 October 2011. The State Secretary underlined the need for the legislative package to be adopted in due time as this is, as she underlined, the precondition for having enough time for programming and especially for implementing the partnership principle and accordance with the multi-level governance approach. As she said Slovenia is opposed to the same situation as in the present programming period when the programming documents were approved as late as the first implementation period.
In her contribution Monika Kirbiš Rojs, MSc also highlighted the importance of coordination between different areas and said that EU Cohesion Policy and all five funds of the Common Strategic Framework are recognised as one of the key instruments of the Europe 2020 Strategy. She said that ensuring coherent approaches in strategic planning is the key issue as the Common Strategic Framework will not only will connect the Europe 2020 Strategy goals but also the actions of all five funds. “We perceive the set of the key activities in the Common Strategic Framework as a list of the possible priorities which the Member States can use as a tool for the selection of their main types of activity” said Monika Kirbiš Rojs, MSc. She also underlined that Slovenia is content that the key targets and actions of the EU objectives are put in a single document instead of several separate sets of guidelines as is the case in the current programming period 2007-2013.
The State Secretary concluded her contribution by underlining the need “to assure that each project contributes to growth and jobs”. She believes that this is “our common goal for the future”.
The State Secretary met with Ms Danuta Hϋbner, a Member of the European Parliament and the President of the Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament, and the representatives of various European Commission directorates. The topic of the conversations was the implementation of the programming period 2007-2013 and the expectations until 2020.
