149 regions from 20 EU Member States wrote to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on 25 June to express their concerns about the amount of funding allocated to cohesion policy in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 (see EUROPE 13648/23).
In particular, these regions are calling for specific regulations for all the instruments dedicated to cohesion policy, which guarantee and respect the fundamental principles: a territorial approach that takes account of specific local characteristics, partnership (collaboration between public authorities, economic and social players and society at all levels of programme implementation), subsidiarity, shared management and multi-level governance (see EUROPE 13645/5).
Faced with the dreaded reforms, the 149 regions are calling for a clearly identified budget for cohesion policy, with indicative regional envelopes defined at EU level based on the current consolidated methodology, taking account of social and economic indicators.
“The budget should match the long-term investment approach of cohesion policy in all EU regions to address EU objectives, from triple transition (green, digital and social) to security”, according to the letter (https://aeur.eu/f/hn5 ).
The budget should be strengthened to enable a more flexible response to emerging priorities, according to the regions, which reject any centralisation of fund management at Member State level, as well as any leeway that might be given to them in the allocation of resources. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)