(AGENPARL) – BRUXELLES mer 21 giugno 2023 Partnership agreements (PAs) are overarching documents that define the strategy and investment priorities for the cohesion policy funds. By the end of 2022, the PAs for all 27 Member States for the 2021-2027 programming period had been adopted; EU support is worth €368 billion and the total investment is €545 billion, taking into account national financing. PAs in this programming period are much shorter and more concise documents than the agreements in the 2014-2020 period. The two policy objectives (POs) with the largest allocations are PO4 Social Europe and PO2 Greener Europe. Most of the funding is earmarked for the less developed regions, where gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant was less than 75 % of the EU average in the 2015-2017 period. With the programming completed, the implementation phase is now in full swing as the regions start spending the funds in accordance with the measures and priorities outlined in the PAs. However, ensuring fulfilment of all outstanding horizontal and thematic enabling conditions is key for the effective delivery of results. In general, PAs and their oversight are a responsibility of the European Commission, which has the lead among the EU institutions in implementing cohesion policy. The Commission assesses the PAs’ compliance with the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) – including the horizontal principles, such as partnership and subsidiarity – and approves them via implementing acts. The European Parliament can exercise its role of political scrutiny and oversight of the Commission. As co-legislator for the CPR, Parliament has the right to be informed about the implementation of the Regulation, and can submit parliamentary questions asking the Commission to explain how it verifies that the horizontal principles are respected in the PAs. Through the discharge procedure, Parliament can ensure ex-post democratic oversight at political level of how the EU’s budget has been used. However, Parliament cannot veto PAs as such, as it has no formal role in the approval procedure. Nevertheless, gradual steps could be taken to increase transparency and oversight. For example, Parliament could insist on the public release of the Commission’s assessments of the PAs, similarly to the assessments of the national recovery and resilience plans.

Fonte : © Unione europea, 2023 – PE

Fonte/Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/it/document/EPRS_BRI(2023)749796