09/02/2021 (Agence Europe) – On Tuesday, 9 February, the European Parliament and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU ratified an interim agreement on the less political aspects of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) regulation. This was a matter of working to align the recitals with the content of the regulation—not political negotiations on its substance. The agreement reached at the end of 2020 remains unchanged (see EUROPE 12619/22). We are told that final adoption and publication in the Official Journal of the EU is expected to take place by mid-April, taking into account the time needed to complete the translation of the texts, the verification by lawyer-linguists, and the usual legislative process (see EUROPE 12648/16). (PH)