Cohesion Financial Instrument activities. Report 1993-1994

Adopting the report by Mr Carlos Costa Neves, the Committee on Regional Policy congratulated the Commission on the speed with which it had introduced the cohesion financial instrument. It noted that no irregularities or fraud had been reported for approved projects and considered that the implementation of the budget was satisfactory in the 1993 financial year, although it did feel that it was impossible to draw conclusions for 1994, given the brief period covered by the instrument in that period. The report deplored the fact that the Commission had not provided any information on the funding of projects in Objective 1 zones and highlighted the imbalance in spending on environmental projects, stressing once again the importance of maintaining a balance between the two areas of intervention, i.e. transport infrastructures (which represented 60% of projects) and the environment. The rapporteur also called on the Commission to: - boost funding for smaller-scale environmental projects; in the future, the Cohesion Fund should be used mainly for large-scale projects and for combining projects in the two sectors concerned; - strengthen the ex ante evaluation of the environmental impact of transport infrastructure projects and give priority to more environmentally-friendly modes of transport (inland waterway networks, rail transport and intermodality between these systems); environmental impact reports should be available before choices are made and work can begin; - substantially increase the number of projects in extremely remote regions; - improve its evaluation of the impact of projects on the basis of compliance with convergence criteria. The report also called for: - better public information on investments under the Cohesion Fund; - more powers for monitoring committees and for more delegates from regional and local authorities to be elected to these committees; - a better financial evaluation of projects; - priority to be given in the environmental area to fighting erosion and slowing down desertification.�