On Monday 15 July, the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, attempted to justify the merits of cohesion policy in the face of attacks from the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, who suggested that the policy was “overfunded” due to a low absorption rate of Community funds.
At an event in Brussels on the future of cohesion policy, Mr Lindner reiterated his criticism of the current use of European funds. “Cohesion policy is notorious for its absorption problems”, he said. According to the German minister, these problems have been exacerbated by the parallel existence of cohesion policy and the post-Covid-19 recovery fund, Next Generation EU. He pointed out that, to date, only 5% of cohesion policy funds had been allocated for the period from 2021 to 2027.
“For me, this is, of course, immediately raising the question, isn’t the sluggish absorption of the vast amount of cohesion policy resources a sign of overfunding?”, he said. “Shouldn’t we be thinking more about reducing the budget or reallocating the funds to other urgent policy needs, such as security or defence?”, he suggested.
Mr Lindner stressed the need to reform the EU’s cohesion policy and Germany’s role as the “biggest contributor” in this area.
“I don’t really like the false dichotomy between net contributors and net beneficiaries”, retorted Ms Ferreira, arguing that “we all stand to gain from European integration”.
Cohesion policy is “more relevant today than ever”, she added. Reform of the EU budget should not result in “curtailing cohesion”, she also stressed.
The German government has presented the conclusions of a research project presenting a “multitude of arguments” in favour of reforming cohesion policy in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) after 2027.
Germany’s official position on this policy’s reform could lead to conflict between Robert Habeck, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (Greens) and Mr Lindner. What’s more, there could be disagreements between the federal government and the Länder, who are campaigning to maintain current cohesion policy allocations.
Ms Ferreira also thanked the Länder “for their continuous support and engagement in highlighting the merits of this policy”.
Link to the German research project: https://aeur.eu/f/d26 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)