Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

The Euro-Mediterranean initiative PRIMA (Partnership on Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) is jointly promoted by the European Commission and 19 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area, 11 of which are EU Member States.

PRIMA has a remarkable geo-strategic significance for the European Union as a whole. While the programme is implemented exclusively in the Mediterranean neighbourhood, and may appear therefore as a merely regional tool, at the same time it does serve geopolitical priorities that are of collective interest and urgency for all Member States.

By addressing challenges such as water scarcity and food insecurity in the Southern neighbourhood, it intends to act as a tool of science-diplomacy and focus on the root causes of the migration emergency, whose impact is increasingly escalating beyond the borders of the Southern Member States.

The Rapporteur agrees therefore with the Commission’s proposal to keep open the possibility of membership also for Member States that are not yet involved in the programme.

Complementarity must also be ensured between PRIMA and other existing cooperation instruments and initiatives of the EU (such as the new Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument that entered into force in 2021 replacing the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument), in order to avoid overlaps and duplications while implementing the programme’s actions.

The draft report presented by the Rapporteur intends to implement only a limited number of changes to the Commission’s proposal.

According to the interim evaluation report, the PRIMA programme has successfully proved its added value to European cooperation policies. Between 2018 and 2022, PRIMA has funded 202 projects (including water supply, farming and agro-food), worth 285.7 million in total.

Therefore, the Rapporteur believes that changes should be limited to only what is strictly necessary in order to enable as swiftly as possible the continuation of the programme.

In light of such considerations, the Rapporteur also agrees with the Commission’s approach not to expand the scope of the instrument.

The proposed changes concern mainly the following areas.

First, the Rapporteur considers it necessary to amend the evaluation benchmarks described in article 14. According to the Commission’s proposal, the Commission shall conduct an interim evaluation and a final evaluation of PRIMA in the framework of the Horizon Europe evaluations, in accordance with Article 52 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695. However, actions carried out under the framework of Horizon 2020 should be assessed according to the evaluation standards of Horizon 2020.

Secondly, access to information should be strengthened for the European Parliament. While Parliamentary oversight is already ensured by the flowing of the monitoring outcomes and the periodic reviews into the monitoring of European partnerships, as part of the Horizon Europe evaluations pursuant to Article 52 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the Rapporteur believes that the PRIMA-IS should provide the European Parliament also access to all information related to the indirect actions it funds. Such information should include contributions and results of beneficiaries participating in indirect actions, or any other information deemed necessary for developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Union or where applicable Participating States’ policies or programmes.

A further point of intervention concerns the powers of the Commission described in article 4, paragraph 3, where the Rapporteur deems the new proposed article to be unclear with respect to the nature, scope and extent of the mentioned measures.