The two biggest files for the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) over the next five years are the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the legislative package for cohesion policy beyond 2027. These files are closely interlinked and of the utmost importance, as we defend the existence of a strong cohesion policy backed up by an ambitious budget.
Cohesion policy has brought positive changes across the European Union, but regional disparities remain, and many challenges still need to be tackled. These include the green and digital transition, climate change, migration, competitiveness and strategic autonomy, demographic challenges, economic stagnation, and future enlargement waves.
We need to make implementation easier. The complexity of cohesion funding instruments often deters authorities and other actors from implementing projects they are eligible for.
This will require a conscious, holistic and constructive reform process. We should not shy away from making bold reform proposals, while making sure that they are accompanied by a significant budget from 2027 onwards.
In recent years, cohesion instruments have proven useful in responding to the various crises that have hit our continent. In each case, the rules were adapted with the support of REGI to enable EU cohesion funds to bring relief to the population.
Nevertheless, the EU cohesion instruments should not be seen as merely a reactive tool. Cohesion policy is a structural policy that relies on long-term strategies and investments. It must remain so.
REGI will also support and take part in negotiations to set up new investment capacities that enhance European competitiveness – and we are open to discussions on efficiency and simplification to improve the delivery of cohesion support and reduce disparities between regions.
We must also defend the regulatory and financial integrity of cohesion funding, ensuring it remains distinct from more general investment policies and maintains its core tenants of long-termism and partnerships. REGI will uphold the treaty role of cohesion policy, which is to support economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU.
The potential move towards a centralised management, as seen with the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), poses a threat to cohesion policy and its main features: partnership and multilevel governance. It risks reducing local and regional involvement and could worsen regional disparities. Cohesion policy risks losing its identity under a centralised management mixed with other policies.
Furthermore, using cohesion policy repeatedly as a crisis response tool may divert it from its primary goal of promoting long-term convergence, undermining its effectiveness in tackling ongoing inequalities.
My hope is that over the next five years the work of our committee will give rise to a stronger cohesion policy, building on a simpler regulatory framework and on a robust budgetary allocation that enables quicker and more efficient support to EU citizens and territories.
More than ever, Europe needs to remind citizens of its reliable and solid presence in their daily lives. We owe it to all EU citizens, current and future, to have at their disposal a strong and efficient support framework to allow for true economic, social and territorial convergence and cohesion across the whole territory.