At the ‘General Affairs’ Council on Friday 28 March, Romania, supported by fifteen other EU Member States, will call for a strong EU cohesion policy post-2027.
At this Council meeting devoted to the future of cohesion policy (see EUROPE 13602/14), Romania will present a non-paper, seen by Agence Europe and supported by 15 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain), calling for “a viable and robust budget” for cohesion policy in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034.
These ‘friends of cohesion’ countries are calling on the European Commission, which will be presenting its proposals for the next seven-year MFF this summer, to ensure that the cohesion policy budget for this period is “at least equal to the current level in real terms, in order to further reduce regional disparities, enhance resilience, competitiveness and enable the achievement of EU strategic priorities, while reflecting the growing needs and challenges of all regions and all territories, aiming to prevent a sharp and drastic drop in the cohesion allocation of a region or Member State”.
Another request made by these sixteen Member States: “Maintain real GDP per capita as the main criterion for regional categorisation” (regions benefiting from funding under this policy).
Finally, the Commission is asked to “preserve the implementation of the cohesion policy under the shared management mode in order to ensure that all regions can pursue investments needed for both convergence and competitiveness based on the development opportunities and needs of specific territories”.
While recognising the need for a modern and adequate EU budget, the ‘friends of cohesion’ countries stress the need to “ensure that the future budget can further deliver for all regions and all types of territories, with greater support intensity for the less developed regions, aiming at reducing disparities between the levels of development in line with the Art. 174 of the TFEU”. Furthering the “convergence” process is vital, in their view. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)