EGN NEWS DESK
By radically altering the principles, the Commission desires to handle “strategic dependencies” on overseas international locations and increase the sort of pan-European industrial revival championed by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in his landmark competitiveness report.
The third and fourth pillars give attention to enlargement and funding to overseas international locations, and personnel prices, however there are few particulars on what might change within the close to future.
Overall, this mannequin marks a dramatic shift from the EU’s present apply of funding native areas or nationwide governments with fewer strings hooked up.
“The Draghi report is setting the narrative for an influence seize,” mentioned a second EU official.
Critics accuse von der Leyen of assuming an outsized function in the way in which the EU distributes money on the detriment of native our bodies and different Commission departments.
In an extra trace at centralization, the doc envisages an advert hoc steering group that can deal with the funds course of. This might be made up by von der Leyen, the funds division and the Secretariat General, which operates beneath the president’s direct authority. Vice presidents and different departments could be concerned as mere “company.”
Detractors of this strategy counsel that it sucks energy away from Directorates General (DGs) — the Brussels model of ministries — which have typically been seen as extra pliable to sectoral pursuits. For occasion, the agriculture division was accused of defending automated funds to farmers no matter their efforts to go inexperienced, whereas the regional division was seen by critics as being too centered on the native — versus the EU-wide — dimension.
More than 130 areas criticized the Commission’s concept of establishing a plan for every nation in an open letter lately.
