The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, Elisa Ferreira, gave MEPs a brief overview of the state of play in the negotiations on the eight cohesion policy funds during an exchange of views with the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development on Tuesday 10 November, stressing the importance of reaching an agreement while keeping a coherent legal framework.
In fact, for the Commissioner, it is essential that a “coherent legal framework be negotiated, in which all legal instruments fit together, they don’t compete with each other, but that together they really trigger an adequate relaunching of the European economy”, she said in her opening remarks.
For the Commissioner, it is therefore necessary to find a solution to the issue of financing urban mobility within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (see EUROPE 12593/23) or on the issue of aid for companies in difficulty - a point also discussed in the inter-institutional negotiating box on the Just Transition Fund (see other news on this subject).
Furthermore, the Commissioner stressed the need to make progress on the issue of macro-conditionality (see EUROPE 12582/17) in the negotiating box on the Common Provisions Regulation between the Structural and Investment Funds.
On the Just Transition Fund (see EUROPE 12574/15), Ms Ferreira stressed the need not to substitute the Fund for other cohesion policy funds and to bear in mind that the Fund will not have the budget allocation desired by the European Parliament. Similarly, the Commissioner stressed the importance of also being consistent on investments in gas infrastructure under the ERDF and the Just Transition Fund. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)