Only weeks before a European Council meeting in December is to define funding for regional development across Europe beyond 2020, regions are still in the dark about what will be the final decision on the future of Cohesion Policy.
Europe's regions are in urgent need of concrete measures to boost their local economy and their European dimension, stakeholders highlighted during the General Assembly of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) in Madeira, Portugal on Thursday (October 18).
EU citizens want more Europe, but they want a Europe that works, a former US ambassador to the EU told the closing ceremony of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2018 in Brussels on Thursday (October 11). Europe’s comparative...
Portugal was the big winner of the RegioStars awards 2018 in Brussels, a project promoting regional innovation, cohesion and culture in the EU, with two awards for its innovation in sustainable industrial technologies and the promotion of cultural heritage.
With the European Week of Regions and Cities starting on 8 September, the debate on Cohesion Policy and its future in the EU's long-term budget 2020 is at the forefront. The European Economic and Social Committee will play a determining role in the debate and the final agreement on the proposal.
Ahead of the European Week of Regions and Cities, the debate on Cohesion policy continues to spark tension inside the Brussels bubble as well as among stakeholders and networks of regions and cities across Europe.
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.
