The agreement reached by the European Council on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the European Recovery Plan is satisfactory to the regions and cities, which welcomed the relative preservation of cohesion policy on Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 July. However, the territorial weakness of the Recovery Plan and the budget cuts in future policies are a matter for debate.
“Despite controversial cuts and last-minute concessions, they offer concrete opportunities to help local communities protect citizens, relaunch the economy and boost the green and digital transition”, welcomed Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EPP, Greece).
However, the President did not fail to stress once again the risk of “over-centralisation” which, in his view, “would undermine the impact of these exceptional measures”. The CoR President hoped that the European Parliament would play “its crucial role(...) to ensure that Europe's regions, cities and villages contribute to effective investment decisions and to their implementation on the ground”.
The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) also had the same view, welcoming the “adequate budgets” for policies aimed at local and regional authorities (in particular REACT-EU and the Connecting Europe Facility), the increase in specific allocations for the outermost regions and depopulated northern regions and the reserve for Brexit.
However, the CPMR was disappointed by the 82% reduction in the EU health programme (EU4health) and the reduction of the Just Transition Fund from €40 billion to €17.5 billion.
Above all, the organisation regrets the removal of the transitional solution by abolishing the solvency instrument and rejecting the European Commission's proposal to allocate an additional €5 billion euros under REACT-EU from 2020 (see EUROPE 12533/9).
Cities Anna Lisa Boni, Secretary General of Eurocities, also welcomed the agreement, hoping that national governments will let cities make the most of the Recovery Plan. However,she was disappointed with the budget cuts in the new European policies, in particular Horizon Europe. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)