17/03/2022 (Agence Europe) – Drawing on lessons from the European response during the pandemic and now to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and noting that this response has always been based primarily on cohesion policy, the European Alliance for Cohesion believes that there is a need to strengthen the role of cohesion policy and to take better account of the EU’s territories, particularly in the context of the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process, in a press release published on Thursday 17 March alongside the 8 Cohesion Forum. In this respect, the Alliance welcomes the messages from the European Commission in the 8th Cohesion Report to strengthen multi-level governance and the partnership principle (see EUROPE 12887/2). The regions have recently renewed their demand for a binding role in certain EU policies that directly concern them (see EUROPE 12904/25). (PH)