Proposal for a Regulation (EC) No …/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 on the European Regional Development Fund as regards the eligibility of housing interventions in favour of marginalised communities - Progress report - Montesquieu Instituut

 

COUNCIL OFBrussels, 23 September 2009

THE EUROPEAN UNION

13609/09

FSTR 68 REGIO 40 CADREFIN 49 SOC 533 CODEC 1115

"I" ITEM NOTE

from:

Working Party on Structural Measures

to: Permanent Representatives Committee

No Cion prop.: 12281/09 FSTR 63 REGIO 33 CADREFIN 42 SOC 456 CODEC 993

Subject:

Proposal for a Regulation (EC) No .../2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 on the European Regional Development Fund as regards the eligibility of housing interventions in favour of marginalised communities

• - 

  Progress report
• 1. 

  The Commission submitted the above-mentioned proposal to the Council on 22 July 2009.
• 3. 

  The Permanent Representatives Committee is therefore invited to:
• - 

  take note of the progress made on the proposal;
• - 

  invite the Presidency to pursue negotiations with the European Parliament on the basis

of the agreed text with a view to reaching an agreement at first reading of the

Parliament, and to report to the Working Party on Structural Measures on progress in

these negotiations, and

• - 

  inscribe in its minutes the unilateral statement by the PT delegation, as set out in Annex

II.

________________________

ANNEX I

Proposal for a

REGULATION (EC) No .../2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE

COUNCIL

amending Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 on the European Regional Development Fund as regards

the eligibility of housing interventions in favour of marginalised communities

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 162

thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee2,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions3,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty,

Whereas,

(2) Expenditures are to be programmed in the framework of an integrated urban development

operation or priority axis for areas experienced or threatened by physical deterioration and

social exclusion. For purposes of clarity, the conditions under which housing interventions

in urban areas can take place should be simplified. Therefore, expenditures on housing

interventions should be programmed taking into account different parameters regardless of

the source of financing. It should also be stated that only expenditures on the interventions

in existing buildings are eligible.

(3) In the Member States to which Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 applies, a

large number of marginalised communities live also outside urban areas. Therefore, it is

necessary to extend the eligibility of expenditures on housing interventions in favour of

these communities living in rural areas.

(4) Irrespective of whether these communities are located in urban or rural areas, due to the

extremely poor quality of their housing conditions, expenditures on the renovation and on

the replacement of the existing houses, including by newly constructed ones, should also be

eligible.

(5) In line with Principle No 2 of the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion reiterated by

the Council in its Conclusions on Inclusion of the Roma of 8 June 2009, housing

interventions focused on a specific group should not exclude other people sharing similar

socio-economic circumstances.

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 is replaced by the following:

"2. Expenditure on housing, except for energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy as

set out in paragraph 1a, shall be eligible only for those Member States that acceded to the

European Union on or after 1 May 2004, where the following conditions are met:

(a) expenditure shall be programmed within one of the following frameworks:

(i) the framework of an integrated urban development approach for areas

experiencing or threatened by physical deterioration and social exclusion;

(ii) the framework of an integrated approach for marginalised communities.

(b) The allocation to housing expenditure shall be either a maximum of 3 % of the

ERDF allocation to the operational programmes concerned or 2 % of the total ERDF

allocation.

For the purposes of point (a)(i) and (ii) of the first subparagraph, expenditure shall be

limited to the following interventions:

• - 

  renovation of the common parts in existing multi-family housing,

Article 2

This regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official

Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels,

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President The President

[...] [...]

________________

ANNEX II

Statement by the Portuguese delegation

Portugal recognises the European Union's responsibility in combating social exclusion and, in

particular, with regard to actions benefiting the least favoured communities in its territory. It

therefore supports the European Commission's objective in proposing measures designed to

improve the living conditions of those communities.

However, Portugal cannot accept that the amendment of the ERDF Regulation to enable that Fund

to intervene in the housing sector in favour of marginalised communities be based on geographical

eligibility criteria that have nothing to do with the very essence of the measure itself, thereby

making it discriminatory rather than -- as is its primary objective -- inclusive.

Furthermore, this proposal would not seem to reflect the rigour which the Commission has hitherto

applied in relation to interventions linked, however indirectly, to the housing sector.

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