27.9.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 280/1

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having regard to the European Commission's Communication on its Work Programme for 2013 (1),

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having regard to its resolution of 30 November 2012 on the priorities of the Committee of the Regions for 2013 based on the legislative and work programme of the European Commission (2),

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having regard to the Protocol of cooperation between the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions signed on 16 February 2012,

1.

sees 2014 as a game-changing year for the European Union that will be marked by the European Parliament elections, the appointment of a new Commission, the start of the 2014-2020 programming period under a new Multiannual Financial Framework, a mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy and the continuation of the work to complete and deepen the economic and monetary union;

2.

considers that the key challenges for the EU in 2014 will be: generate growth and jobs by transforming our economies for a low carbon sustainable future; to reinforce EU citizenship, in particular at the crucial moment of the European Elections, and to restore faith in the European project in order to shore up the "democratic legitimacy" of the EU which requires continued efforts to defend the EU's core values against erosion from populist and anti-democratic forces;

3.

is concerned that the approaching end of the mandate may affect the level of activity of the European Commission whereas urgent action is required in a vast number of areas;

4.

recalls, that on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the CoR intends to carry out a reflection process on how it could strengthen its institutional and political role;

5.

invites the European Commission to provide a report on the state of play of the on-going discussions on the Future of Europe, including the results of the debates with citizens in the European Year of Citizens 2013; also as part of the "reconnecting with citizens" debate, encourages the European Commission to start preparations of its report on the application of the Regulation on European Citizen's Initiatives already in 2014;

6.

calls on the Commission to present as quickly as possible its proposals on a draft regulation establishing a Single Resolution Mechanism and on the follow-up to the recommendations on structural reform of the banking sector;

7.

asks the European Commission to present a proposal for a revision of the Troika system in order to guarantee democratic scrutiny and its accountability to the European Parliament;

8.

calls for negotiations to be reopened on the Deposit Guarantee Scheme Directive in parallel with the proposal for a Directive establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms;

9.

notes the successful introduction of project bonds in the market in the context of the on-going pilot phase and demands the extension of this initiative to the full period of the next multiannual financial framework (2014-2020) and to other policy areas than energy, transport, and telecom infrastructures; proposes extending the scope of participation to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to channel regional investment funds towards SMEs and to bolster a European venture capital industry based on the regions;

10.

encourages the European Commission to continue to monitor the situation and development of public finances at regional and local level in its annual Report on Public Finances in the European Monetary Union;

11.

considers that the unsatisfactory state of play of Europe 2020 so far is due not only to the economic crisis and the lack of ambition of the Member States but also to the lack of involvement of the local and regional authorities in the design and implementation of the strategy and, more generally, to the lack of a true territorial dimension in Europe 2020;

12.

calls on the Commission to quickly provide a framework for its mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy, going beyond its stated intention to launch a methodology;

13.

recalls that it is constantly monitoring the progress made on all Flagship Initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy and is already working on a mid-term assessment from a local and regional perspective;

14.

deplores the fact that neither the 2013 Annual Growth Survey nor the Country Specific Recommendations made reference to the need for a place-based approach and for multilevel partnership in the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy and demands that the European Commission fulfils its obligations to ensure that Member States build up partnerships with local and regional authorities in the drafting and implementation of national reform programmes (NRP);

15.

encourages the European Commission to identify and give priority in the functioning of the single market to those areas which are most likely to generate innovation and create quality jobs;

16.

encourages the Commission to make proposals for a European industrial policy as one of the pillars of the European project, treated as a genuine political priority on the same political footing as cohesion, infrastructure and agriculture;

17.

supports the European Parliament's proposal to set up a steering group on industrial policy in order to bring together European, national, regional and local powers and the resources currently scattered across all levels and sectors;

18.

requests the European Commission to formally consult the CoR in relation to the elaboration of the new guidelines governing the application of EU state aid rules;

19.

encourages the European Commission to promote the development of regional blueprints for innovation including also industrial development;

20.

requests the Commission to follow up on its communication Entrepreneurship 2020 by further analysing the real obstacles faced by young entrepreneurs and would encourage further cross-border exchange and possibilities for them;

21.

reiterates its request to the European Commission to prepare a White Paper on territorial cohesion which would analyse the interplay between the Territorial Agenda 2020 and the Europe 2020 strategy, as well as the ex-post territorial impact of cohesion policy in 2007-2013;

22.

calls upon the European Commission to report on whether regional and local authorities were involved in a timely and structured way in the drafting of Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes for 2014-2020, in line with the partnership and multilevel governance principles inserted in the Common Provisions Regulation as well as with the Code of Conduct on Partnership;

23.

asks the European Commission to publish a practical easy-to-use guide for local actors on how to use the new structural funds as soon as the new regulations are adopted;

24.

in relation to the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), expresses strong concerns about the lack of sufficient funding over the entire next programming period and its concentration in 2014/2015 which puts its sustainability and efficiency into question. Calls therefore in particular for article 9f of the MFF regulation to be amended in order to remove the explicit limitation of the new YEI budget line to EUR 3 bn. This move would be all the more necessary in order to avoid any backloading after 2016 of programmes which are critical for cohesion such as cross border cooperation programmes or parts of the Connecting Europe Facility;

25.

will cooperate with the European Commission in mainstreaming the EGTC into EU policies, as stated in the agreement in force between the two institutions and encourages the European Commission to promote the use of the EGTC in the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policy; the CoR will explore possibilities to set up EGTCs with neighbourhood partner countries through ARLEM and CORLEAP;

26.

invites the Commission to prepare a Communication on "Mobility in geographically and demographically challenged regions";

27.

in the context of the high level of unemployment in many Member States, which is particularly severe for young people, supports the efforts made in providing a Youth Guarantee and encourages the European Commission to further develop this area and to report on its progress in the course of 2014;

28.

calls on the European Commission to propose a "Social Investment Pact", as also requested by the European Parliament;

29.

believes that greater legal certainty is required for activities in the social economy and calls in this context for a statute of a European mutual society;

30.

in view of the SMEs job creating potential at local and regional level and to help them face the persistent crisis, calls on the European Commission to go further in encouraging financial institutions to lend to and invest in SMEs as a way of both ensuring their survival and promoting their growth. To this effect expects to see the proposals for the new "investment plan" agreed by the June European Council and encourages new investments in open innovation and entrepreneurial start-ups;

31.

calls on the Commission to continue efforts to simplify and minimise regulatory burden for SMEs within the scope of its new Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) and with regular consultations with SMES to identify the EU laws and areas of legislation that they consider most burdensome ("Top Ten" initiative);

32.

calls on the Commission to develop a new political approach focused on entrepreneurship and Smart Specialisation strategies, as well as entrepreneurial discovery at all levels of education, from primary schools to vocational schools and universities; emphasis should be placed on how Europeans — ranging from local and regional leaders, to industrialists or start-up entrepreneurs — can interact with primary school pupils so that they can become more entrepreneurial in their attitudes and daily activities from a very early age;

33.

calls on the Commission to put forward a proposal on the information and consultation of workers, anticipation and management of restructuring, as outlined by the European Parliament resolution of 15 January 2013;

34.

calls upon the Commission to report on the implementation of the Late Payments Directive at national, regional and local levels of government;

35.

calls on the Commission and the Member States to continue involving local and regional authorities in the design and the implementation of policies in the field of justice and home affairs and specifically on migration and asylum as well as on the on-going fight against corruption and organised crime and the protection of victims;

36.

reiterates its commitment to the strategic partnership offered by the European Commission in 2012 through the revised European Agenda on the integration of third-country nationals and the policy dialogue carried out within the European Integration Forum; calls on the Commission to insist on the use of territorial pacts in this policy area as suggested in its revised integration agenda;

37.

calls on the European Commission to revise the Directive 2004/18/EC on the coordination of procedures for the award of public contracts so that "locally produced" can be a standard selection criterion in tenders for the supply of food to, for instance, schools, nursing homes and public facilities (3);

38.

calls for careful evaluation of the territorial impact of all proposals to abolish market regulation mechanisms in agriculture, including bilateral trade agreements and association agreements, and to check whether these proposals are not at odds with the objective of territorial cohesion enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty;

39.

demands the Commission to propose a European rural development strategy in order to rebalance resources in favour of rural areas whose level of development remains below the Community average;

40.

underlines the importance of a good implementation of the new regionalised decision making approach within the reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), with decisions taken at sea basin level instead of the current EU micromanagement, and a better involvement of all stakeholders; is concerned about the use by the Commission of delegated acts as this should not be done at the expense of the specificities of each fishery and sea area;

41.

recalls the key role which a transition to renewable energy supply has to play in the EU's climate and energy policy; calls therefore on the European Commission to propose a legally binding increase in the target for renewable energy for 2030, as well as intermediate targets for 2040 with a view of possibility of reaching 100 % renewable by 2050;

42.

asks the European Commission to launch further initiatives under the Resource Efficiency Roadmap (4) in 2014, such as the setting of complementary resource efficiency indicators in addition to the lead indicator on resource productivity used to gauge progress on the Roadmap's main objective — improving economic performance whilst reducing pressure on natural resources — as well as the setting of a new lead indicator on natural capital and environmental impacts of resource use, and advancing on the target based on these indicators, which is to be able to continually and cheaply measure progress in boosting resource efficiency; reiterates its call upon the European Commission to advance actions towards mandatory targets for green public procurement while taking into account that there are other important factors in public procurement (5);

43.

calls on the European Commission to ensure that its 2014 review of waste legislation and of existing prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery and landfill diversion targets will take due account of the Committee's Outlook Opinion requested by the European Commission on the issue; the review should live up to the "aspirational targets" set out in the Resource Efficiency Roadmap paving the way towards an economy based on re-use and recycling, with residual waste close to zero; demands that in the context of the 2014 review special attention be placed on plastic waste;

44.

as a follow up to the Green Paper, calls on the European Commission to deliver an ambitious new climate and energy framework for the period up to 2030; this framework must specifically provide for higher EU co-financing rates for infrastructure projects that support climate change objectives and are significantly climate related;

45.

requests that the Commission draw up a strategy on energy poverty, accompanied by the appropriate proposals, including an EU-wide definition of energy poverty;

46.

calls on the European Commission to apply all efforts to stimulate energy efficiency and propose binding national energy efficiency targets accompanied with a detailed budgetary impact assessment and a package of financial measures; reiterates the need for policy implementation in this area to respect the partnership principle and to follow a multilevel governance approach;

47.

calls on the European Commission to start and conclude several of the evaluation exercises contemplated within the better regulation strategy and in particular REFIT and recalls its offer to contribute through its consultative networks;

48.

demands that the European Commission makes Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) operational and compulsory in certain policy areas; reiterates its willingness to cooperate closely with the Commission in this area and suggests that the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy becomes a one-stop shop for TIA;

49.

invites the Commission to forward to the Committee proposals for collaboration in the field of consultation of regions and local authorities in the pre-legislative phase (Article 2 of the Protocol on Subsidiarity and Proportionality) and in the field of compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality;

50.

invites the European Commission to improve the EU regulatory framework for Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS), focusing on simplification and access to financing. Culture and creativity should become better integrated in the Europe 2020 strategy;

51.

following the Innovation Investment Package, calls on the European Commission to clearly define and underline the role for LRAs in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programmes and projects. Regions and cities are key players in creating the right framework conditions for innovative environments. As intermediate they bring together, within their territory, the main players of the innovation triangle, a mix of academia, universities, research players, industries and businesses;

52.

stresses the need for issuing a communication on the strategy for sustainable and competitive cultural tourism as a means to support new job opportunities, boost local and regional economies; such a strategy could offer a common framework for promoting and financing the architectural, ethnographical and industrial heritage of European regions;

53.

acknowledges the European Commission intention to deepen the cooperation with the CoR in enhancing the local and regional dimension in the enlargement process; calls for the reflection of this in the annual enlargement progress reports;

54.

invites the Commission to explore further the possibilities of expanding the Local Administration Facility (LAF) to local governments in the Eastern Partnership and Euromed partner countries;

55.

calls on the European Commission and the Council to maintain a "more for more" approach in the new Roadmap for the Eastern Partnership, whereby the initiative should be more considered as an instrument to deploy the transformative power of the European Union's contribution and for the inclusion of local and regional authorities in the implementation of the initiative;

56.

in the context of the Euromed cooperation, welcomes the emphasis being placed on regional development and would like to see the involvement of ARLEM in the so-called Pilot Regional Development Projects;

57.

recalls its full support to declare 2015 as European year for Development to secure the follow-up of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and welcomes the reflections launched by the European Commission on the future global approach to development; calls on the Commission to defend an overarching framework for the post 2015 MDG that brings together the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, environmental;

58.

trusts that its recommendations will be duly considered in the process of preparing the Commission work programme for 2014 and instructs the President of the Committee of the Regions to submit this resolution to the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Council, the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the forthcoming Greek and Italian Presidencies.