In a press release published on Wednesday 30 May, responding to the European Commission's proposal, the Cohesion Alliance as expressed grave concerns at the budgetary cuts anticipated by the Commission for the post-2020 cohesion policy.
The calculations of experts from various regional organisations, chief amongst them the Committee of the Regions (CoR), suggest a reduction of 10% in real terms, rather than 7% as the Commissioner for the Budget, Günther Oettinger, announced. These estimates were confirmed by the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, in an exchange with the MEPs of the committee on regional development (REGI) (see other article).
The President of the Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, expressed particular concern, in addition to the tendencies of the Commission towards centralisation, which is threatening the very “essence of EU cohesion policy”. Similarly, the President of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions, Vasco Cordeiro, regretted the cut in European co-funding.
Daniël Termont, the chair of Eurocities, called for increased involvement for the cities in the framework of partnerships to schedule priorities. He also spoke out against the Commission's intention of separating the European Social Fund + (ESF +) from the rest of the cohesion policy (see EUROPE 12030).
Magnus Berntsson, chair of the Assembly of European Regions, welcomed the fact that the three categories of regions will be retained (see EUROPE 12029), going on to express greater concern over the possibility of transferring up to 5% of the structural and investment funds into InvestEU, the successor to the Juncker Plan. He also expressed his disapproval over the retention of the macroeconomic conditions. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)