26/02/2018 (Agence Europe) – Following the declarations made by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Friday 23 February, in which he said budget cuts were more than likely with regard to cohesion policy and the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Karl-Heinz Lambertz, immediately responded by saying, "The Commission should not present budget cuts to cohesion policy as being the inevitable outcome”. He pointed out that the Commission would do better if it supported a budget that corresponded to the stated goals of the Union. The latter also said that cohesion should not be seen as “a variable adjustment”. Dissatisfaction is mounting in the regions since publication of the Commission’s contribution to the informal summit of European heads of state and government, which appears dead set on budget cuts (see EUROPE 11961). (PH)