The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, Elisa Ferreira, tried to allay the fears of the regions regarding the weakness of the regional dimension in the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU recovery plan, in a speech before the Committee of the Regions on Thursday 4 February.
Committee President Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EPP, Greece) strongly criticised “worrying signals” in the context of the European Recovery Plan in his opening remarks. In several Member States, the REACT-EU initiative is centralised, and the planning of cohesion programmes is not coordinated with the development of national recovery plans, he highlighted.
Mr Tzitzikostas thus indicated, without giving explicit examples, that certain regions, feeling excluded from the work on the national recovery plans, were reportedly dismissed by the European Commission’s dedicated task force, which reportedly “simply” redirected them to their national government.
“If we go ahead in this way, the most powerful investment plan ever deployed by the EU risks failing”, he warned.
In her speech, Elisa Ferreira immediately tried to reassure the participants. “Member States must indicate how their plan will contribute to promote growth-inducing reforms, enhancing cohesion, taking into account local, regional and national disparities”, she said. And, addressing the regions directly: “You are the voice of the regions in Brussels, so I encourage you to continue to speak out on this: the Recovery and Resilience Facility cannot be territorially blind!”
The European Commissioner also expressed her conviction that the plans will not be successful without “strong” regional ownership at every stage of the development and implementation process. She promised that she would closely monitor the consultation to ensure that it is “strong”. She recalled that Member States will have to provide a summary of this consultation process with local and regional authorities and show how these contributions have been taken into account in the national plans.
Ms Ferreira took the opportunity to invite the members of the Committee of the Regions to disseminate as widely as possible the necessary information to stakeholders on their right to be involved in the process.
By the end of 2020, 24 European regions from nine Member States had contacted the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, and the European Commission on this subject (see EUROPE 12616/27). This phenomenon affects centralised states, such as France, but also federal states, such as Austria, as shown in a recent study (see EUROPE 12648/15).
Member States must send their plans to the European Commission by the end of April at the latest. So far, the Commission has received 17 draft National Recovery and Resilience Plans. It will then be up to the EU Council to approve these plans on the basis of a recommendation from the Commission. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)