Marek Wozniak's opinion on the Common Strategic Framework (CSF) was adopted by a large majority during yesterday's meeting of the COTER Commission. The rapporteur welcomes the introduction of such a framework, which will establish coordination and synergies between the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund for the period 2014-2020. "This is a positive step towards effective implementation of policies" he stressed.

Turning to the legal status of the document, the polish Marshal said "in my opinion the CSF should constitute an annex to the CPR and the list of the key actions should be indicative and open, so it does not limit managing authorities in developing operational programmes. This list should only indicate good examples, which would allow these authorities to match appropriately the proposals of the key actions with the region’s needs. In this context we expect a lot of flexibility."

According to the rapporteur, the main purpose of the opinion is to review the Commission's staff working document and to evaluate and improve it so that the document matches the expectations of the whole variety of European regions. It will now be put forward for debate by all CoR members at the October Plenary Session.