At a press conference on Monday 7 October, the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Cordeiro, said that it was “inconceivable” that the EU budget would be centralised in future, leaving out the towns and municipalities, which are “responsible for around 50% of public investment”.
At the 22nd European Week of Regions and Cities, the CoR President rejected an idea contained in an internal European Commission document to create “a single programme at national level in the new multiannual financial framework” after 2027, which would eliminate the participation of regions and cities.
“We firmly reject this idea, not only because of what it represents for Europe’s regions and cities, but also because it contradicts everything we have been told recently about cohesion policy”, criticised Mr Cordeiro.
Some 530 programmes currently in place in each EU country would be brought together in a single national fund, which would determine spending in areas ranging from agricultural subsidies to cohesion policy, according to the controversial internal document.
Speaking to the press, the CoR President said: “If the news is true, we have two major problems”. For local and regional authorities, this proposal represents “the complete obliteration of the role and participation of regions and cities in the future of cohesion policy. And that is not acceptable”.
The second problem is that this proposal “undermines confidence and reliability” with regard to recent statements on the Commission’s commitments concerning the future of cohesion policy.
Mr Cordeiro felt it was time to put an end to this way of doing things. “It’s not reasonable to send these messages to see what the reaction is and then move on”.
“I haven’t seen any document that points in this direction”, said Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion. What is important, she says, “is to not to lose the DNA of cohesion policy”. She defended a policy in favour of all regions, to avoid a “fragmentation” that could jeopardise the future of the EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)