The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, insisted on Tuesday 18 May, during the informal meeting of the Member States’ ministers responsible for cohesion, on the need not to neglect the territorial dimension and the programming of funds within the framework of cohesion policy, at a time when all the attention is focused on drawing up the national recovery plans.
At a press conference, Portuguese Minister Nelson de Souza, responsible for Planning, recalled the importance of coordinating the national recovery plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) with the programming of structural and investment funds (as stated in the Portuguese Presidency’s framework note to the EU Council – see EUROPE 12720/8). For him, the discussion is timely because, although the national plans are in the process of being finalised (see EUROPE 12720/21), their implementation has only just begun.
The Commissioner made four recommendations to Member States. Firstly, it is important to put in place mechanisms to coordinate work at all levels to avoid duplication of funding.
Ideally, the two instruments should be programmed in parallel in order to make the most of possible synergies. He stressed the key role of local and regional authorities in the planning process. This point was stressed by the President of the Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, based on an inconclusive internal survey (see EUROPE 12643/32, 12648/15).
The Commissioner strongly emphasised the spatial dimension and territorial cohesion, which “cannot be an afterthought in this exercise, but rather has to be duly taken into account in the national recovery plans”.
She added, “Our instruments cannot be territorially blind”. She reminded Member States that a technical support instrument was available to support the absorption of funds. On 5 May, the Commission launched a specific call to support Member States in the implementation of national recovery and resilience plans.
Ms Ferreira also called for the introduction of a ‘do no harm’ principle in relation to territorial cohesion: no investment or measure should aggravate regional disparities, she said.
Discussions during the meeting showed a significant disparity of approaches among Member States, with some effectively carrying out both cohesion policy programming and the development of National Recovery Plans, while others are focusing on the Facility first.
One diplomatic source explains that this discussion, although rich, comes late. In the development of the national recovery plans, complementarity and synergies with Cohesion Policy are a point. In addition, programming work and partnership agreements started in summer 2020, which poses difficulties for some Member States. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)