The 9th Cohesion Report, published on Wednesday 27 March by the European Commission, suggests that a “stronger and modernised policy is essential to fortify Europe’s growth model, to build an inclusive Union, and to deliver on the Treaty objective of economic, social and territorial cohesion”.
This report “highlights” the significant achievements of cohesion policy in terms of promoting greater economic and social convergence in the Union and the challenges that remain, particularly at regional level. These include sub-national disparities between large metropolitan areas and other regions, as well as regions caught in a ‘development trap’ and lagging behind. Demographic changes have an additional impact on these challenges (decline in the working-age population, younger population leaving the country).
“Lessons learned from past implementation periods, and from the interplay with other instruments, underline the need for further improvement of the design of Cohesion Policy”, the report also states. In particular, the Commission suggests tackling emerging economic dynamics and new imbalances, adapting support to regional needs, speeding up implementation, pursuing simplification, strengthening performance orientation and establishing links with reforms, and providing room for manoeuvre to respond to unforeseen events.
An initial discussion on the conclusions of the 9th Cohesion Report will take place at the 9th Cohesion Forum on 11 and 12 April in Brussels.
The report also shows that in the long term, each euro invested in cohesion policy should be multiplied by three by 2043, which is equivalent to an annual rate of return of around 4%. Thanks to this policy, an estimated 1.3 million additional jobs will be created in the EU by 2027. By the end of 2022, cohesion policy funding between 2014 and 2020 had supported more than 4.4 million businesses, created 370,000 jobs in these businesses and represented around 13% of total public investment in the EU, rising to 51% for the least developed Member States.
The average per capita GDP of the Member States that recently joined the EU has risen from 52 to almost 80% of the EU average. The gap with the rest of the EU has been halved. The unemployment rate in these Member States has fallen from an average of 13% to 4%.
“While retaining the fundamental principles of cohesion policy (territorial approach, partnership), we can envisage a more simplified programming framework, speed up implementation and strengthen the link with reforms”, commented Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion.
The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Alves Cordeiro, said that cohesion policy “as we know it is in danger, and now is not the time to sit back and wait”. The 9th Cohesion Report “indisputably demonstrates the need for a stronger cohesion policy in the future, based on its principles of partnership and multi-level governance, with the regions at the heart of its implementation”. He felt that the new cohesion policy should continue to support all regions.
The chairman of the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and the EU Budget (COTER), Emil Boc (EPP, Romanian), said that cohesion policy had already proved its worth as a long-term investment policy aimed at stimulating local economies and job creation in all of Europe’s regions.
For MEP Matthias Ecke (S&D, German), the report “proves once again that EU funds are not just abstract budget items but bring concrete benefits to people on the ground”. He called for structural funds to be more flexible. “I reject calls for large-scale centralisation of EU structural funds”, concluded Mr Ecke.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/biw (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)