During a plenary debate on the ninth report on economic and social cohesion in Strasbourg on Monday 5 May, MEPs opposed any form of top-down reform that would centralise cohesion policy. Instead, they argued in favour of greater decentralisation of decision-making to local and regional level, as called for in the draft report by Jacek Protas (EPP, Polish) to be voted on Thursday 8 May.
Jacek Protas said that this report “will become the European Parliament’s position on the future of cohesion policy after 2027”. In his view, cohesion policy must “benefit from sufficiently ambitious and accessible funding beyond 2027, at least at the level of the current Multiannual Financial Framework in real terms”. The European Commission is invited to provide special support to the regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Cohesion policy must remain decentralised, said Sérgio Gonçalves (S&D, Portuguese). Ľubica Karvašová (Renew Europe, Slovak) opposed the Slovak government’s desire to reallocate certain cohesion policy funds to priorities other than support for the regions.
Defence. Gordan Bosanac (Greens/EFA, Croatian) expressed concern about the fast-track procedure accepted by the European Parliament to vote on the proposed mid-term review of cohesion policy. Cristina Guarda (Greens/EFA, Italian) criticised the Commission for wanting to allow funding for multinationals and the war industry. “But you don’t fight depopulation with guns”, said Ms Guarda. Kathleen Funchion (The Left, Irish) regretted that this revision “opens the door to the militarisation of cohesion policy”.
For Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, “we cannot support cohesion policy as it stands if we want to ensure its future”. He defended the proposed mid-term review. “A modernised framework must be put in place as quickly as possible so that Member States can choose which investments to direct towards the new priorities”, he summarised. The Protas report does not mention the content of this mid-term review (see EUROPE 13618/15, 13612/4).
Link to the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/gob (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)