Cohesion policy has not yet learned enough from the crises. This is what a study presented to the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) on Tuesday, 8 November, found.
In fact, this study takes an interest in the repercussions of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on cohesion policy. These have not hit the territories the same way. For example, the islands were reportedly hit harder by Covid-19 than by the Russian invasion, since they are less dependent on Russian gas imports and energy-intensive industries.
The study also finds that despite the flexibilities introduced, the programmes for 2021–2027 adopt a “‘back to normality’ approach” to the detriment of new “‘post-pandemic development models’”. Yet, these crises—which, coupled with “mega-trends” (climate change, demographic change, etc.), exacerbate regional disparities—are bound to become more common.
“The message that we see from Covid, from the sensitivities to the Russian war in Ukraine, from the mega-trends is really that we need to rethink about it; we need to rethink much more about resilience [...] in terms of the capacity to react to unexpected changes. [...] We’re living in a time where crises are more constant, so we actually need to think, ‘How can we [...] strengthen the recovery?’”, pleaded Kai Böhme, coauthor of the study, who also insisted on the need to ensure that no region is left behind. MEPs, in turn, called for not only the specificities of vulnerable regions, such as the islands, but also the inequalities within territories to be taken into account.
Interplay between RRF and cohesion
Kai Böhme also mentioned “avoid[ing getting] into a competition” between cohesion policy and the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF), given they pursue similar objectives. He also stressed “the need to assess how the complementarities and the synergies between those work”, calling on the European Parliament to ask the European Commission to study this issue.
To read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/3y1 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)