MEPs approved a non-legislative resolution at the plenary session in which they underlined that EU and national procedures must be simplified to enable poorer regions in particular to access and invest higher rates of EU funding for regional development and building competitiveness.

The resolution "Absorption of Structural and Cohesion Funds: lessons learnt for the future cohesion policy" approved by the European Parliament stressed that cut red tape to boost take-up of EU funds is fundamental. They also added that absolute priority should go to job-creating projects. Thus, MEPs urge the Commission to put more emphasis on payments for delivery of results and creating new jobs rather than chasing up irregularities of form, rather than substance. Last year report showed that supporting regions with specific geographical features was very productive for some regions.

In addition, according to MEPs, controls should focus on detecting real frauds. Therefore, Parliament urges that audit requirements should be proportional to the amount of funding provided. It recommends introducing a single, once-only audit to turn cohesion policy into a truly performance-oriented and cost-efficient tool.

MEPs also suggested improving administrative capacity, setting up an EU-wide co-operation programme, based on twinning regions with high and low take-up rates, to make it easier to share best practice. The resolution also stresses the need for multi-level governance and partnership in managing structural and cohesion funds.