At the informal meeting of European ministers responsible for cohesion policy on Wednesday 21 May in Warsaw, “we adopted a declaration (https://aeur.eu/f/GWS ) stressing in particular the importance of cohesion policy within the Union”, said the Polish minister, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, referring to the proposals expected in July on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) (see EUROPE 13644/20).
She added that the declaration showed that the ministers were opposed to the European Commission’s plans to centralise the management of this policy.
She also indicated that the declaration included a section on housing policy and regional inequalities in housing in EU countries.
Particular attention has also been paid to regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. These regions require special attention from the Union as a whole and need support, otherwise they risk demographic and economic “collapse”, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz warned.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz told the press: “In July, we will see the draft budget for 2028 onwards, and Poland is fighting for a very important issue: maintaining the strength of cohesion policy. We are not betting on centralisation”. The countries that defend a more centralised vision of cohesion policy and emphasise competitiveness include Denmark and the Netherlands.
The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Kata Tüttő, and rapporteur Isabelle Boudineau (PES, French), presented the institution’s position. Ms Tütto spoke in favour of a “strong and modernised” cohesion policy to face the challenges and called on the Member States to fight to ensure that the resources allocated to cohesion policy are maintained “at least at the same level as the 2021-2027 ones”.
Isabelle Boudineau, regional councillor for Nouvelle-Aquitaine, called for cohesion and competitiveness not to be disconnected in the future EU budget.
The S&D group to the rescue. On Wednesday 21 May, the S&D Group in the European Parliament adopted its position on cohesion policy for the forthcoming MFF. It is calling on the European Commission to abandon its idea to “take back (the management of) cohesion policy from regional and local authorities and concentrate it into the hands of national capitals”.
The S&D group believes that cohesion policy should not consider GDP as the main indicator for the distribution of funds. “Regions with the same GDP may have vastly different characteristics, which may require very different investments”, the document states.
According to the S&D group, work should be undertaken to define a set of indicators that take into account socio-economic aspects (poverty and social exclusion, sectoral structure of the economy, health, access to services, etc.), security aspects (exposure to security threats posed by a common border with Russia and/or Belarus, need to invest in defence, border management), and demographic challenges.
Link to the S&D Group document: https://aeur.eu/f/gxx (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)