“It is important that cohesion policy plays an even greater role in meeting the demographic challenges after 2027”, said Tibor Navracsics, the Hungarian Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development, in Budapest on Friday 6 September.
At the informal meeting of European ministers responsible for cohesion policy, the Hungarian minister also said that cohesion policy should provide a flexible and targeted response, taking into account the specific needs and circumstances of each region and respecting the principle of subsidiarity (see EUROPE 13474/6).
It is essential to “meet the demographic challenges, not only to preserve our competitiveness, but also to maintain social cohesion”, he summarised at the meeting, which was not attended by the Commissioner for Cohesion, Elisa Ferreira.
At a press briefing after the meeting, Tibor Navracsics said that cohesion policy should help to “stop the depopulation of certain areas and bring life back to these villages, towns and regions”. What do we need to do to encourage more people to have children in these regions?
Brain drain. For him, the population decline in the southern and eastern Member States of the European Union is due in particular to immigration within the Union. Tibor Navracsics spoke about the brain drain phenomenon, a particular problem, according to the Hungarian minister, for the Member States of Central, South-Eastern and Southern Europe. “Hungary, but also Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltic States, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, are facing the problem of young qualified workers leaving their countries for the north-western and western Member States, which is damaging the competitiveness of their countries and their economies”, stressed Mr Navracsics.
EU Council conclusions at the end of November. Addressing his counterparts, he stated that “the issues we are discussing are not simply a set of statistics or theoretical questions: they are tangible problems that will fundamentally determine the future of societies and economies”. In particular, he stressed that youth unemployment remained high, “especially in the least developed regions, where the lack of opportunities exacerbates existing problems such as immigration and the brain drain”.
Friday’s exchange of views “will contribute to the draft EU Council conclusions which we hope to draw up during our Presidency and which we plan to adopt at the EU ‘General Affairs’ Council on 28 November”, he added.
Tibor Navracsics said he hoped that the important role of cohesion policy will be mentioned in the report on EU competitiveness by former European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi (see EUROPE 13475/2).
Finally, the Hungarian Minister also said that he wants to see the conclusions of the European Council of 19 and 20 December mention that cohesion policy “will continue to play a decisive role in the future with regard to the competitiveness of the EU and the improvement of the demographic situation in the EU”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)