158th CoR Plenary Session (29-30 November 2023)

Co-rapporteurs: Vasco Alves Cordeiro (PT/PES), Member of the Parliament of the Autonomous Region of the Azores and Emil Boc (RO/EPP), Mayor of Cluj-Napoca / Commission: COTER
The opinion aims at enabling the CoR to assume a proactive role in the preparation of the next Cohesion Policy cycle after 2027. It will allow the CoR to put forward its political recommendations in advance of the 9th Cohesion Report and the subsequent Strategic Agenda of the European Union, which are both expected in spring 2024. It will also allow the CoR to politically reflect upon the various discussions on the future of Cohesion policy which will be conducted throughout 2023.

Adapting cohesion policy post-2027 is based on the simple ideas of “flexibility and predictability, partnership and responsibility”, said the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Alves Cordeiro, on Monday 9 October during European Week of Regions and Cities.
The CoR proposes carrying out a wide-ranging evaluation of simplification measures. Lastly, the CoR President advised that competition and overlap between funds and programmes should be avoided.

Early work is underway on the post-2027 reform of EU cohesion policy. This creates a unique opportunity for regional and local stakeholders to influence national positions and those of the European institutions at an early stage, well before the actual start of the legislative process.
The European Commission has set up a high-level group of specialists to examine and re-shape the role of cohesion policy. The group will publish its strategic conclusions and recommendations in early 2024. These will feed into the 9th report on cohesion, expected to present the Commission's substantive reform options for the future design of cohesion policy.
The first EU institution to adopt an official position on cohesion policy post-2027 will be the Committee of the Regions at its plenary in November 2023.

Follow the ongoing work of the High Level Group on the future of the cohesion policy.
The Commission has established the Group of high-level specialists on the future of Cohesion Policy. The group will reflect on how to maximize the effectiveness of Cohesion policy with a view to tackling the multiple challenges identified in the 8th Cohesion Report, from the innovation divide to the demographic change. And how the policy will support a fair digital and green transition and regional recovery and growth. The group will meet in Brussels nine times throughout 2023. It will bring together representatives of academia, national, regional and local politicians, socio-economic partners and representatives of civil society. The Group will publish its strategic conclusions and recommendations in early 2024.

The 'do no harm to cohesion' principle, introduced by the European Commission in the 8th Cohesion Report, puts an emphasis on enhancing the coherence between cohesion policy and other EU policies.
The European Parliament recommended that the European Committee of the Regions be involved in defining the principle in more detail. While the principle's introduction has been welcomed unanimously, there have been a number of calls to flesh it out further and to redefine the relationship between cohesion policy and the European Semester.

The EU offers financial support to regional and local authorities, NGOs, businesses, professionals and citizens through a wide variety of funds. This 'Guide to EU funding' produced by the European Parliamentary Research Service provides easily accessible information on the full range of EU funding sources, conveniently grouped by area of action. The main funding themes of the guide are divided in subsections in order to facilitate research. A number of hyperlinks have been included in the text in order to make access to the source of funding information easier.

This Discussion Paper focuses on the review of the post-2027 Multi Annual Financial Framework and the debate concerning the future EU Cohesion Policy. It argues that Cohesion Policy’s purpose requires reinvention, not an incremental upgrade.

This paper reviews the nature of, and case for, modern case for place-based policies. In order to do this, we examine how the thinking about place-based policies has developed over time in the context of the changes experienced in the economies of advanced economies over recent decades.

The EU’s cohesion policy, which aims at reducing regional disparities, benefits high-skilled, richer households more than low-income households and exacerbates inequality within EU regions, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Mannheim, the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin and Aarhus University.

Partnership agreements (PAs) are overarching documents that define the strategy and investment priorities for the cohesion policy funds. By the end of 2022, the PAs for all 27 Member States for the 2021-2027 programming period had been adopted; EU support is worth €368 billion and the total investment is €545 billion, taking into account national financing. The two policy objectives (POs) with the largest allocations are PO4 Social Europe and PO2 Greener Europe.
With the programming completed, the implementation phase is now in full swing as the regions start spending the funds in accordance with the measures and priorities outlined in the PAs. However, ensuring fulfilment of all outstanding horizontal and thematic enabling conditions is key for the effective delivery of results.

In the context of the debate on the future of Europe, this book makes the case for a new approach to structural transformation, growth and cohesion in the EU. It explores both the opportunities and challenges from globalisation and technological change, the widening differences in productivity between leading and lagging regions, and the need for a new policy framework capable of delivering inclusive growth.