The members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) met on Wednesday 5 July, in the presence of the European Commissioner for Budget, Johannes Hahn, to discuss the European Commission’s proposal for a mid-term review of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), presented on 20 June (see EUROPE 13205/1).
With regard to the request for new resources for cohesion, Commissioner Hahn indicated that he had excluded cohesion and agriculture from this revision of the MFF from the outset “to avoid all the discussions that would be politicised and take time to settle between Member States”.
While a large majority of CoR members welcomed the proposal for new financial resources to respond to the current crises, including support for the war effort and the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as the recognition of the importance of decentralisation and local development of regions and cities in this reconstruction process, they were much more critical of the proposal for a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP).
In its proposal, the European Commission suggests using funds dedicated to cohesion to strengthen this platform, which aims to develop ‘critical’ technologies (see EUROPE 13205/3).
“Ms von der Leyen said in her speech that some funds had projects but no money, and that the Cohesion Fund had money but no projects. We were very irritated by this”, explained CoR rapporteur Thomas Habermann (EPP, German), who believes that cutting cohesion funds would be fatal for the EU.
“Cohesion policy has projects, and they are particularly important for our citizens in the regions, towns and municipalities. It has real added value and contributes to the development of the Union as a whole”, he insisted.
Earlier in the day, CoR President Vasco Alves Cordeiro also shared these observations with the President of the European Commission (see EUROPE 13216/7).
Kate Feeney (Renew Europe, Irish) added that “50% of public investment in Europe is channelled through regional and local authorities. Citizens have more confidence in these politicians at local and regional level than in other politicians. We are an under-utilised asset that can be used to get the right message across”.
Faced with these reactions, Commissioner Hahn acknowledged the concerns linked to the STEP platform and made it clear that it was not a question of withdrawing funds from cohesion policy, but of offering certain regions the possibility of using funds already allocated to the regions to finance the development of industries. “Generally speaking, industrial capacity cannot be financed by regional funds, but here we are opening up this limited route to the least developed regions or to countries whose GDP is below the European average”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)