The President of the European Committee of the Regions, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, defended, on Friday 29 September in Murcia, a bold and transformative reform of cohesion policy to make it more agile, more transparent and more accessible to regions and cities.
He advocated the introduction of a European partnership pact to make cohesion policy simpler and more flexible (see EUROPE 13261/1).
“Cohesion policy is one of the major EU policies and it should remain so after the current funding period until 2027”. The CoR president stressed the need to strike a new balance between long-term investment needs and the ability of cohesion policy funding to be agile and responsive to unforeseen events.
He presented the draft opinions adopted by the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER). He suggested that a single strategic framework be put in place to define the scope and objective of each fund under this ‘European Partnership Pact’, which would also include the Rural Development Fund. “Our proposal would not only reinforce much needed coherence across the different funds, but most importantly it would also deliver meaningful simplification to both managing authorities and beneficiaries”, stated President Cordeiro. “Only if we keep strengthening the territorial cohesion, we will avoid a divide between frontrunner regions and those vulnerable to the external shocks of our globally connected internal market”, said the CoR President.
On 9 October, the CoR will publish its annual report on the state of the EU’s regions and cities, providing an overview of the most pressing challenges facing Europe’s regions and cities, and the solutions found on the ground. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)