Delays in the formulation of legal frameworks and spending plans create severe obstacles to an effective use of Cohesion funding, shifting the focus on quick use of money rather than on performance and results, a new Court of Auditors report published Thursday (13 September) underlined.
European regions and cities were left wondering about the noticeable absence of Cohesion policy in Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the Union speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday (12 September). They were particularly irked by his failure to highlight the positive role of regions in handling migration.
Prolonging the Cohesion debate and postponing the final agreement will have a negative impact on the policy’s essence and content, but will also further affect the European idea, participants underlined during a hearing at the European Economic and Social Committee on Thursday (6 September).
The European Economic and Social Committee expressed strong disagreement with the Commission’s proposal to cut Cohesion policy funds by 10% in a recent opinion, saying the EU executive must show sensitivity for the current political environment rather than focus only...
Project-selection procedures in the EU's Cohesion policy remain oriented towards outputs and spending rather than driven by expected results, a new report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) underlined.
Dangers of backsliding can already be identified in the European Commission’s proposal for Cohesion Policy in the next seven-year EU budget, warns the Committee of the Regions’ Catiuscia Marini. But she says the aim is to reach a framework agreement on resources and rules before the current term expires.
The European Commission's plans to overhaul and slash Cohesion Policy spending in the next seven year EU budget are going in the wrong direction, says the Committee of the Regions' Michael Schneider.
One and a half months after the new legislative package on Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 period was announced, negotiations are ready to start in order to reach a final consensus before the new European Parliament takes office in 2019....
Urban development needs to be further extended and must not be transformed into a networking exercise, Kieran McCarthy, an Irish councillor from Cork, told a Committee of the Regions plenary in Brussels on Wednesday (4 July).
"The Mediterranean Sea is not just a geographical boundary, it unites people." That was the message of the Regional Governor of Western Greece, Apostolos Katsifaras, chairman of the Intermediterranean Committee of the CPMR.
Big vehicle manufacturing companies have committed to investing more in clean buses for European cities, Alain Van Gaever, DG Mobility and Transport at the European Commission, told a conference on clean transport in Brussels on Wednesday (27 June).
The EU's new regional policy is a “balanced, simpler and ambitious” proposal, the best that could have ever been achieved under the current conditions, Commissioner Corina Crețu told Members of the European Parliament on Thursday (May 31).
Networks of European regions and cities remain puzzled by the "mixed messages" sent from the presentation of the legislative package for Cohesion on Tuesday (29 May), where they heard Commission proposals to focus more on southern Europe and to apply significant changes in the structure of Cohesion Policy Funds.
National and local authorities in Greece, Poland, Spain, Croatia and Bulgaria will participate in a new pilot action to improve governance and administrative capacity-building in the management of regional funds, the European Commission announced on Thursday (24 May).
What do the Alps and Mount Olympus have in common apart from snowy peaks? Since 2017, tunnels have carved through the rock, slashing journey times and improving road safety. Greece's project took a long time to happen but EU funding ultimately made it all possible.
The European Commission is determined to protect the integrity of its Cohesion Policy but this is going to be a battle where no one can have it all, the EU's Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger told the Committee of the Regions plenary on Thursday (May 16).
Croatia is one of the best users of the EU's Cohesion funds and is ready to raise its national contribution to the EU budget but wants other member states to do the same, Croatian officials said on Tuesday (15 May). But they also warned against raising the rate of national co-financing of Cohesion programmes.
Refugee flows through Greece’s land borders have started rising again, causing frustration among EU and Greek authorities. According to UNHCR data, in April alone 2,900 people entered Greece via land passages at the borders of Evros River, mainly families from Syria and Iraq.
Dealing with the refugee crisis has proved to be an insurmountable task for Europe, due to the apparent lack of a coherent immigration policy and political indecisiveness. Europe's cohesion comes out shaken as a result, EURACTIV.gr reports.
EU regions and cities have expressed their concern about the European Commission’s new proposal for the post-2020 cohesion budget, raising doubts about the future effectiveness of the policy.
The announcement of the European Commission's new long-term budget proposal contained a rather bad surprise for the stakeholders of Cohesion Policy. The EU's second largest policy in terms of budget is the big loser of the Commission’s proposal, with a planned 7% cut and a total budget of €442.412 billion.
Rules on the so-called Omnibus regulation on EU financial rules, including Cohesion policy, will be simplified, whether they are managed by the Commission, by various organisations and bodies, or jointly with national authorities. The European Parliament is now expected to...
European regions want an enhanced and inclusive Cohesion Policy that will make use of structural funds and more complementary mechanisms to address the current problems at their core. At the same time, the Committee of the Regions is asking for a concrete plan before the European elections in May 2019.
Corina Crețu, the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, supports the possibility for two member states working on cross-border cooperation projects to voluntarily choose the legislation from one of the two countries.
