Unofficially revealed plans for the future EU budget have alerted many environments in Europe, very afraid about the accumulation of a number of another funds and initiatives under a single Competitiveness Fund. Brussels does not give precedence to wellness care, for example. The resources from the same resource will be available for large RES projects if the EU institutions recognise that this will... aid to build the competitiveness of the European economy.
The EU4Health wellness Fund presently has EUR 5.3 billion. However, like the Horizon Europe investigation Fund, the Framework Programme 10 (FP10), the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund, InvestEU, the Single marketplace Programme and the Space and Digital Innovation circumstantial Funds are to be integrated into a single Competitiveness Fund.
Opponents of specified a solution inform that, in this way, funds from the EU budget envelope for, for example, wellness care will simply vanish and will be spent on another purposes.
By June next year, the European Commission should propose another seven-year EU financial plan. It is under way and any of the media have been able to take note of the proposals to consolidate the EU budget.
Although wellness policy falls within national competence, in consequence to the alleged Covid-19 pandemic, EU associate States have allocated EUR 5.3 billion to the EU4Health programme.
However, the funds from this fund will go to the fresh European Competitiveness Fund to increase the strategical autonomy and economical value of the block.
This ‘restructuring’ which has been discussed in the European Commission since January last year aims to address the deficiency of a strategical direction for EU policy by giving precedence to selected programmes.
In practice, it is about uncovering money in the EU budget for large investments in selected countries; money to improve the competitiveness of the European economy. The rules on participation and application of the fresh fund are to be harmonised.
Some MEPs are afraid about shifting resources from wellness care to another purposes, which is not unfounded. All the more so, since in February EUR 1 billion was transferred from EU4Health to part-financing of the aid package for Ukraine.
The implementation of long-term wellness initiatives, specified as a programme to address the shortage of nurses in EU countries, will be called into question.
The EC proposal besides strikes regional innovation programmes. Representatives of the European Committee of the Regions have already expressed their outrage. In a peculiar paper addressed to Commission representatives, they complained that the proposal to make a Competitiveness Fund "does not say much about how to overcome the innovation divide or how to advance local innovation".
The funds from the combined fund would be paid for a circumstantial policy programme. Brussels points out that, in the current situation, existing individual projects are besides complex and slow implemented. In addition, they are not ‘strategic enough’, so that manufacture cannot usage them freely. The Commission besides complains of the nuisance of managing and supervising funds.
The Commission's plans show that it aims to centralise the budget and to focus on the 4 main budget lines related to the implementation of large projects to increase Europe's global competitiveness. This is in line with the recommendations of erstwhile Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in his study on improving the competitiveness of the European economy.
However, this means abandoning policies to bridge the gap in the improvement of regions which are lagging behind the remainder of Europe.
The Committee of the Regions has so made a number of demands, including those relating to bringing little innovative sites into the European investigation ecosystem; greater synergies between the various EU funds, the introduction of multi-annual investigation and innovation programmes that combine backing from different sources. They besides want more uniform rules for projects financed from different funds. They powerfully request that the budget be secured for investigation against any cuts and transfers.
Former EU wellness Commissioner and current Socialist MEP Vytenis Andriukaitis says the current budget is insufficient and the situation will deteriorate with the forthcoming EU enlargement. The MEP fears that any programmes, including wellness care, will be liquidated.
Therefore, there is force for the EC to make its own taxation revenues. The 2016 study by erstwhile Italian Commissioner and Prime Minister Mario Monti proposed respective options for the EU to make its own resources, including the CO tax2, corporate income taxation and financial transaction tax.
Sources: euronews.com, sciencebusiness.net
AS
