COHESION POLICY : COMPROMISE AT LAST ON STRUCTURAL FUNDS 2014-2020.

This time it should work. The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), meeting on 29 October, agreed a compromise on the EU's future cohesion policy. It was approved by qualified majority since the United Kingdom does not support it. The rules that will apply to the 325 billion in Structural Funds for the years 2014 to 2020 are now known. Parliament saves face on macro-conditionality: it will be involved in the procedure - but without being able to block anything - and different economic and social criteria can decrease the amount of aid that can be suspended.

Does this mark the finish line? Not yet. Parliament's negotiating team had to make huge concessions on extremely sensitive issues like macro-conditionality and the performance reserve, two mechanisms it vigorously rejected. The team will now have to get the troops to accept its concessions, which is not necessarily going to be easy. "We are hopeful that a final agreement can be reached but we aren't certain," said a source close to the negotiations. A degree of suspense remains and the denouement will not come until the vote in plenary, on 20 November, even though the opinion of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI, date not set yet) will already serve as a barometer.

The mechanism for...