On Friday 20 February, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) called for a thorough review of the proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034.
It considered that this “risks weakening Europe’s territories and compromising the Union’s cohesion, resilience and competitiveness“ (see EUROPE 13802/17).
For the CPMR, the proposed reforms “affect fundamental aspects of the EU budget, including its objectives, governance, and overall policy architecture, setting the stage for complex and far-reaching negotiations”.
In particular, the CPMR considers the National and Regional Partnership Plans to be a red line because, as envisaged, they “risk sidelining regions and ignoring Europe’s territorial diversity”. “Their allocation methodology fails to address regional disparities and specificities, and risks neglecting the needs of outermost regions or Northern Sparsely Populated Areas”, it explained. It sees the introduction of a ‘regional check amendment’ in November 2025 as a step forward, but considers it “insufficient to fully address the territorial shortcomings of the proposal”. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)