Tag: cohesion policy

The next long-term budget for the EU must recognise cities’ potential for playing a much greater role in the economic recovery and therefore the urgent priority for investment in urban Europe, writes Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.

Hungary appears to be a special case as EU leaders gather today (22 November) for a special summit on the Union’s 2014-2020 budget. Under the budget proposal by Council President Herman Van Rompuy, the country may lose about 30% of its cohesion allocations - “a huge political problem” for Budapest.

One week before heads of states and government are to convene a special summit in Brussels to discuss the 2014-2020 budget, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy tabled a €950-billion proposal that is €75 billion less than the Commission's initial recommendation.

Britain will demand changes to the European Union's regional development funds in budget talks this month, including stripping wealthier nations of access to money intended to help poorer areas, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

While EU officials in Brussels boast about the proposed simplification of the bloc's cohesion policy, regional representatives contend that managing EU funds is still very complicated in practice.

A bridge linking Bulgaria and Romania that was financed in part with EU cohesion funds is due to open within a month, although a deal on joint management of the River Danube span has not yet been set up.

If the scheduled extraordinary European Council in November does not agree on a framework for the 2014-2020 budget or if the European Parliament denies its approval, the future of the EU will be held hostage to an unstable and unmanageable environment, argues Ivailo Kalfin.

Cyprus tabled yesterday (19 September) a ‘negotiating box’ for the European Union budget for 2014-2020, to be discussed by European affairs ministers on Monday. According to the paper, ministers are requested to limit their presentations to three minutes.

An extraordinary summit of EU heads of state and governments in November will focus on the European Union budget for 2014-2020, it emerged following a meeting of European Affairs ministers held in Nicosia yesterday (30 August).

German MEP Constanze Krehl was working to win a mandate on EU funds for the 2014-2020 multi-annual financial framework. She says EU funds will be completely revamped to support projects that fall in line with the EU's 2020 goals, but throws her support behind coal plants.

MEPs are rushing to get an agreement on how EU funds will be spent on regions in the next budgetary period (2014-2020), but it remains to be seen how 'green' the proposal will be with some lawmakers saying it retains subsidies for non-climate-friendly gas and oil projects.

Germany and six other countries have co-sponsored a call to freeze the EU's next seven-year budget for the period 2014-2020, according to a document obtained by EurActiv.de. But France remains undecided for now as the new Socialist government has yet to take a definitive stance on the issue.

Germany benefits greatly from the EU's regional policy in Central and East European nations through increased commerce, says a study commissioned by Poland that also says French companies are benefiting.

The European Commission's proposals that urge member states to invest part of their regional development fund on low-carbon and energy-efficiency measures sounds very encouraging, argues Markus Trilling of the CEE Bankwatch Network. The question that remains though is whether these proposals will be sufficient enough to secure the conditions for a sustainable regional development.

A drawn-out battle over the EU's next long-term budget (2014-2020) is due to begin this week with European Commission proposals expected on Wednesday (29 June). The draft will include a controversial plan for an EU tax aimed at reducing national contributions, but the overall size of the budget is expected to remain close to the current €1 trillion per seven-year framework.

French regional leaders have urged EU policymakers to maintain cohesion funding at current levels or risk throwing Europe back into recession. 

Meeting in Brussels today (1 April), regional leaders are expected to adopt a report that directly contradicts many of the European Commission's ideas for reforming the EU structural funds in the coming years. Mayor of Dunkirk Michel Delebarre spoke to EurActiv about why the Committee of the Regions cannot support some of the Commission's plans.

Regions in relatively rich countries should continue to receive money from Brussels, because this is how the European Union "shows its face," according to German MEP Markus Pieper (European People's Party), who is in charge of drafting the European Parliament's opinion on the future of EU regional policy.

Meeting in Brussels yesterday (21 February), EU ministers expressed strong support for maintaining the bloc's cohesion policy, but failed to find agreement on some of the controversial aspects of the European Commission's review proposal, including attaching conditions to the  payment of EU funds.

The EU commissioner in charge of regional policy, Johannes Hahn, has called on regional and national governments to make sure they use up all the money that is available from the EU's structural funds by speeding up the implementation of projects on the ground.

How should the EU's cohesion policy be reformed to meet the challenges facing Europe's regions in the coming years? EurActiv Czech Republic interviewed Fabrizio Barca, one of Europe's leading experts in the field of economics and regional development.

The 'new' member states in Central and Eastern Europe are working together to coordinate their views on the reform of the EU's Cohesion Policy for the next seven-year period (2014-2020). Daniel Braun, a deputy minister in the Czech government, spoke to EurActiv Czech Republic about the fruits of this close collaboration.

The success of Europe's second macro-regional strategy will depend on close cooperation between the regions and nations involved, according to the European Commission, which published its proposals for the Danube region last week (9 December).

The Bucharest-Ilfov region is using EU funds to develop its tourism infrastructure and improve its attractiveness to business travellers in the country's capital. EurActiv Romania reports.