MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committees on the Budget (BUDG), Regional Development (REGI) and Agriculture (AGRI) held a joint meeting on Monday 19 January to begin examining the European Commission’s proposal to create a National and Regional Partnership Fund (NRPF) for the period 2028-2034 (see EUROPE 13682/1).
It would be allocated €865 billion, or almost 44% of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), and would bring together cohesion policy, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), fisheries, social affairs, migration and security in single national and regional plans for each Member State, along the lines of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgian), who chaired the session, pointed out that the text played a key role in the organisation of the EU budget. Parliament’s long-standing concerns about centralisation and governance emerged in the discussions.
The Commissioner for the Budget, Piotr Serafin, defended an instrument designed to reconcile flexibility and predictability. He recalled the existence of guaranteed minimum amounts. Thus, €294 billion would go to agriculture, €218 billion to the least developed regions, €34 billion to migration and borders, with a social objective of 14% and a climate and biodiversity objective of 33%. “Conditionality linked to the Rule of law will remain a pillar of the next MFF”, he said, asserting that the new fund does not call into question the existing framework.
The Executive Vice-President responsible for Cohesion, Raffaele Fitto, spoke of maintaining the fundamental principles of cohesion policy, with a focus on the territories most in difficulty, shared management and multi-level governance.
He also acknowledged the concerns that the regions would be marginalised. He added that “the regions will remain central to the design and implementation of the plans”.
On the subject of agriculture, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, sought to reassure the MEPs of the AGRI Committee.
The CAP, he stressed, would retain “its specific nature”. Income support would therefore not be subject to the reform logic applicable to other policies.
“Farmers need stability and predictability”, he said, referring to a base of around €300 billion, increased to almost €400 billion after the adjustments proposed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Gabriella Gerzsenyi (EPP, Hungarian) expressed concern at the risk of over-centralisation to the detriment of local authorities, while Karlo Ressler (EPP, Croatian) pointed to the relative drop in funding for cohesion and agriculture.
Jean-Marc Germain (S&D, French) defended separate envelopes and the abolition of macro-conditionalities, which allow regional or agricultural funding to be blocked on the grounds of national macro-economic imbalances, on the basis that they alienate citizens from the European project.
MEPs pointed out that the NRPF accounts for almost half of the next MFF and that it has major consequences for the governance of European funds, making it a politically decisive dossier and ruling out any rapid adoption. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)