Maltese MEP Alfred Sant said that the European Union should ensure that cohesion funding and similar proposals do not unintendedly serve to further stimulate divergences by increasing a dependency of south to north over the medium to long term, leading to an increase in counter productive resource transfer, rather than its reduction. 

Dr Sant made this declaration when he tabled a written explanation in which he said that his vote in favour of the report "Investment for jobs and growth: promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU” at the European Parliament in Strasbourg was conditioned by certain considerations.

Dr Sant said that in all the interventions that are carried out at regional level, no matter what their scope, source of funding or sectoral placing, it is crucial to ensure that they fit into a strategy that attempts to counter the regional (and national) divergences that for systemic reasons are growing within the eurozone.

The mechanisms that define the eurozone, including the absence of centrally funded Treasury mechanisms and of mutualised instruments for tapping financial markets, plus the wide range of endowments characterising the separate territories of the zone, are leading to transfers of resources from “south” to “north”. It is crucial to ensure, said Dr Sant, that cohesion funding is also analysed in terms of this phenomenon. It should be ensured that they contribute on a micro basis as well as within a macro-regional framework, to counter, or compensate for, this transfer of resources.