Is the new Cohesion Policy really green?

The Cohesion Policy regulations do indeed call upon Member States to come up with targets on energy savings, renewables, recycling and biodiversity in line with the EU 2020 climate goals. These are to be established by Member States themselves and included in "partnership contracts" that each government will then negotiate with the Commission. The regulations further propose a system of monitoring of implementation of these targets by Member States, as well as a system of punishment and rewards for performance against those targets. These elements are very much welcomed by green NGOs, which have been advocating for targets and conditionality for years.

However, as the regulations stand today, the Commission leaves too much leverage to Member States in respect of the setting of those targets. This is certainly helping the regulation texts get accepted by the governments, but it will make it difficult for the Commission to ensure that the national targets in the end add up to energy efficient, renewables, recycling and biodiversity measures that indeed guarantee that Europe meets the EU 2020 and 2050 climate objectives.

Up to now, only few indicators have been used in reporting by Member States to the Commission, e.g. referring to the uptake of funds (how much money has been spent). This is going to change with the new Cohesion Policy.

The common indicators proposed by the EC in the new regulations are measuring, for example, how much additional renewable capacity has been created, how many households were provided with improved energy efficiency, or if GHG reductions were achieved.

However indispensable dimensions of environmental sustainability like biodiversity or the use of material, land and water are recklessly neglected. This needs to change: the September 2011 Resource Efficiency Framework, for instance, is calling for the development and use of resource productivity indicators, and the implementation of the Cohesion Policy needs to follow such leads.

Not only is such spending still possible, it remains a priority of the Commission. Air transport is specifically outlined in the 11 spending priorities in the regulation text. Ten billion Euros of the Cohesion Fund have been earmarked for the TEN-T European transport network, aiming at the construction of a comprehensive European motorways and road network. In addition, the EU budget proposal presented by the Commission in June 2011 makes it clear that 40 other billion Euros from the common budget would be used for TEN-T. The TEN-T structure is still to be announced by the Commission (due in October) and it is a list that should be scrutinised carefully on the issue of environmental impact of the projects to be supported.

Instead of financing roads and airports, bold financial commitments to environmental friendly modes of transport are necessary to break the current trend of ever increasing GHG emissions from the transport sector.

While the Cohesion Policy regulations offer a code of conduct on transparency and public participation that Member States are recommended to use, a code of conduct is just an example of behaviour, hence offering no guarantee that NGOs and the public as a whole would be more involved in the decision-making processes than before or that a minimum level of transparency in the spending of the funds is guaranteed.

CEE Bankwatch Network has doubts that this regulation sets us on the right path towards CEE countries' transition to resource efficient societies. These regulations are very good when it comes to asking of Member States to set targets for themselves, in monitoring if those targets are met and in stimulating progress through a carrot and stick approach.

Nevertheless, Member States – and particularly Central and Eastern European ones -- tend to use the funds for unsustainable short-term goals even though only a long-term perspective can help us overcome the current crisis.

Therefore, we believe too much is left up to the political negotiations that are to take place between Brussels and national governments after the latter submit their proposals for spending. The Commission has been very effective in specifying concrete amounts of spending for transport corridors, for instance, even at this early budgeting stage – it is unfortunate that it did not consider a similar approach necessary for crucial measures aimed at containing climate change and boosting the necessary transformation towards sustainability.