Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Polish minister responsible for cohesion policy, acknowledged, on Friday 28 March in Brussels, following the EU General Affairs Council devoted to the future of cohesion policy, that discussions were needed to modify this policy to take account of new challenges, namely resilience, security and competitiveness, in particular.
The European Commission is currently working on a mid-term reform of cohesion policy and is due to present its proposals for the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, in July. Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz felt that cohesion policy should continue to benefit all European regions. However, this policy will have to be modified because “we have to take into account new economic and geopolitical circumstances”.
Indeed, EU regions close to the conflict zone in Ukraine have suffered in recent years. “This means that we need more security, more resilience and more competitiveness in the EU”, said Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. In response to a question from a journalist, she pointed out that in order to meet these challenges, it is necessary to maintain decentralisation (a strong role for the regions) and good cooperation with the Council and the Commission in Brussels. According to the minister, the right balance needs to be struck between the powers of the regions, the Member States and the Commission.
No to centralisation. All Member States have “stated and agreed that multi-level governance of cohesion policy is crucial”, according to Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. The regions must be given greater responsibility. If they are not, “we cannot talk about an effective cohesion policy”, she added, referring to the Commission’s plan to introduce a national plan for each country to spend EU funds. It is essential that, in the next European budget, a dedicated and separate line is set aside for cohesion, said the Italian Minister for European Affairs, Tommaso Foti. “We are very concerned about the possibility of a single national plan merging all European funds”, he said.
Postponement of the mid-term review? Responding to questions from the press on the forthcoming mid-term review of cohesion policy, Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, stressed that it was important not to work in haste, but to strive for a correct approach. The European Commission is “working” on the mid-term review of cohesion policy, but “it’s a complex task. I hope it can be presented as soon as possible”. Mr Fitto felt that it was necessary to discuss the fate of border regions, which find themselves in special situations. “There is no delay” but it is necessary to take new priorities into account, he added.
Tommaso Foti, the Italian minister, advocated “a flexible approach” to enable cohesion policy to adapt to changes in the socio-economic context.
The ‘friends’ of cohesion. Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz confirmed that a total of 16 Member States (including Romania) supported Romania’s non-paper (https://aeur.eu/f/g5p ) calling for a robust future budget for cohesion policy. Poland agrees with the content of this document (see EUROPE 13609/6). During the debate on the future of this policy, some of the so-called ‘frugal’ countries emphasised the current budgetary constraints at national level.
Unanimous conclusions. Finally, all the Member States, including Hungary, adopted the conclusions on the future of cohesion policy. In a statement, Hungary refers to its “regrettable experience” with the current conditionality mechanisms, which can be used “in a biased way to block a Member State’s access to EU funds”.
Raffaele Fitto stressed that the conclusions confirmed “the key principles” of cohesion policy, namely shared management, multi-level governance, the partnership principle and the place-based approach. He reaffirmed the importance of the role of regions, cities and local authorities (multi-level governance). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)