The EU Council and the European Parliament made little progress on the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund (ERDF and CF) regulation on Wednesday 28 October, with negotiations stalled on the gas issue and the issue of thematic concentrations.
In fact, this regulation played inversely to the Just Transition Fund (see EUROPE 12561/11): in this case, it was Parliament that wanted to remove all possibility of financing gas, whereas the EU Council would like to maintain exceptions. There are still some outstanding issues (such as whether or not to integrate taxonomy). A limit of 1% of the ERDF budget dedicated to gas investments has been envisaged.
The other stumbling block is the financing of mobility in urban areas, which should be, according to the EU Council, in priority 2 dedicated to climate, while Parliament prefers to include it in operational priority 3 dedicated to mobility and connectivity. Parliament fears that funding for urban mobility, if it were to be included in priority 2, would take up the vast majority of the funds provided for under PO2.
The date of the next meeting was not yet known, but is said to be planned for after the November plenary session. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)