08/02/2018 (Agence Europe) – The last minute deal reached on Wednesday 7 February between the SPD and the CDU (see EUROPE 11956) was hailed by Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany), who is a member of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and rapporteur for opinion on the future of cohesion policy (see EUROPE 11787). He welcomed the agreement which, in his view, sends a “clear signal” in favour of cohesion policy. The coalition deal calls for a “strong” cohesion policy covering all regions and maintaining “large” structural funds. Nonetheless, the agreement provides for this policy to support structural reforms, which seems to worry some, especially the secretary general of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), Eleni Marianou, for whom the policy “should not become a tool centred exclusively on structural reforms implementation in the member states”. (PH)