On Tuesday, 25 October, the European Commission presented the progress on the implementation of the cohesion policy for 2021–2027 to the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI).
Despite the delays caused by crises, 23 partnership agreements have been adopted, and only those of Belgium, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Spain still need to be adopted. According to the European Commission, these [remaining partnership agreements] are expected to be approved by November at the latest.
In addition, 129 out of 295 cohesion programmes have been adopted. Coming to €131 billion, the committed amounts cover 36% of the total budget, compared to the remaining €238 billion. “It’s rather smaller programmes that, so far, have been adopted, but progress is made really on a daily basis”, assured the institution. It also reiterated that the funds for the 2022 cohesion policy must be committed by the end of the year, with possible delays under the carry-over procedure. The European Commission also assured that “horizontal issues”, such as sustainable development or fundamental rights, have been given increased attention in both the partnership agreements and the cohesion programmes.
Finally, 61% of Interreg programmes have been adopted, and 79% of the amounts (i.e., €21 billion) have been committed.
Delays in the just transition
For their part, MEPs particularly lamented the slow adoption of Just Transition Programmes and expressed concern that beneficiary regions are not managing to make expenditure commitments within the agreed time limits. Nora Mebarek (S&D, French) denounced how difficult it is for certain regions to “demonstrate the number of jobs directly threatened by the green transition” due to the lack of rules adapted to the situation in certain regions, while Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, French) called out “Kafkaesque” administrative situations. Niklas Nienass (Greens/EFA, German) suggested there be additional deadlines for regions that involve citizens in decisions on how funds are used. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)