At a press briefing on Wednesday 28 January, several MEPs from the EPP Group in the European Parliament set out their intentions for the cohesion and regional development funds under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 (see EUROPE 13782/14).
Bulgarian Andrey Novakov explained that Parliament had three to four months to prepare its first draft negotiating position. “Our main goal is to keep this regulation as regional as possible and make a national plans regional because we don’t like to see centralization”, he announced. Taking into account the completely different needs of even neighbouring regions, the EPP wishes to adopt a differentiated approach for each region, in which mayors and regional leaders will be involved. Belgian Pascal Arimont said he was very “surprised” by the new structure of the fund and expressed “a real fear of seeing the regions excluded from any decision-making process”.
The EPP also intends to separate the cohesion funds from the Common Agricultural Policy, as is currently the case. Mr Arimont refuses to allow “farmers and local political decision-makers to fight over the same funds”.
MEPs insisted on the need to re-establish criteria defining how cohesion and regional funds should be administered. “Simplification must not be achieved at the expense of transparency. We need to strike the right balance between transparency and control”, defended France’s Isabelle Callennec. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)