About: cohesion funds Archives

The leaders of the Visegrád Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) are meeting today (2 March) in Warsaw to discuss, among other things, food quality in Central and Eastern Europe.

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Crețu is extremely dissatisfied with the poor performance of the Adriatic-Ionian Strategy's implementation. EURACTIV Greece reports.

A new development fund launched in northern Greece aims to boost SMEs’ role in the local economy and simultaneously ensure transparency in financial management, the governor of the Western Macedonia region told EURACTIV Greece.

Regional structural funds absorption procedures should be simplified, Dr. Michael Schneider said in an interview with EURACTIV Greece, adding that financing through the European Strategic Investment Fund should also include a geographical factor.

The EU’s cohesion policy, which aims at closing the development gap between rich and poor regions, has succeeded in boosting local growth although many people aren't aware of it, professor John Bachtler said in an interview with EURACTIV Greece.

This week, the European Court of Auditors will report on how the EU spends taxpayer money. For once, the worst offending member states will be named and shamed, with Hungary set to top the list. This should just be the starting point, insist Bart Staes and Benedek Javor.

Romanian Commissioner Corina Crețu has urged her country to submit better quality bids for EU money, as the Eastern European nation struggles to secure all-important funding. EURACTIV Romania reports.

The European Commission is highly satisfied with the results of the Investment Plan for Europe, with €82 billion already triggered in new investment, Margaritis Schinas said in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV Greece.

Nearly two years after the adoption of the new long-term EU budget (2014-2020), the Czech government is still struggling to fulfill conditions that would open the door to half a billion euros of EU cohesion money available to support high-speed internet. EURACTIV.cz reports.

Serious errors in the awarding of €349 billion of EU public funds meant that contracts were given to undeserving companies in tendering processes that were not competitive, the European Court of Auditors has said.

Corina Cre?u, Romania’s commissioner –designate for Regional Policy, left MEPs with mixed feelings following her confirmation hearing yesterday (1 October). The centre-right EPP reproached her for providing few ideas, and for lacking a proposal as to how to solve a major budgetary problem concerning her portfolio. EURACTIV Romania contributed to this article.

EXCLUSIVE / Europe’s structural funding cash pool for energy efficiency and renewables projects has soared by 40% to an estimated €38-39 billion and could be used to broker a 2030 clean energy targets deal with cost-concerned east European states, EURACTIV has learned.  

SPECIAL REPORT / When there is less money, the only way to cope is to spend it better and more efficiently. This is the age-old principle behind Brussels' approach to the next EU budget, for 2014-2020.

Hungary won access today (9 September) to €2 billion in frozen EU development funds after convincing Brussels its management of projects met European standards.

Poland changed the narrative that presented the EU's cohesion policy as something from the past that does not provide solutions to today's problems, says Piotr Serafin.

As EU leaders meet tomorrow (7 February) for a two-day summit to ink out a deal on the Union's long-term budget for 2014-2020, diplomats said it was “now or never” for them to agree. Indeed, the political calendar of countries like Germany would make it much more difficult to reach a compromise before the 2014 European elections. 

Only 10% of EU cohesion funds earmarked for energy  efficiency - in total worth €5 billion - are being used correctly, an author of a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) announced yesterday (14 January).

EXCLUSIVE / The differences between the initial proposal for the EU's long-term budget (2014-2020), made by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy last week, and the new version he gave to EU heads of state and government last night, reveal the impact of the bilateral “confessions” held yesterday.

A second budget for the eurozone would result in treating countries differently and ultimately destroy the EU, Enik? Gy?ri, Hungary's state secretary for European Affairs, told EURACTIV Germany. 

The 22-23 November EU summit to debate the 2014-2020 budget will be preceded by  “confessionals” one day earlier, with the 27 heads of state informing European Council President Herman Van Rompuy privately of their 'red lines' on spending, EURACTIV can reveal.

There is a tendency in the EU, especially when dealing with Central and Eastern Europe, to turn the reality of the European diversity into a differentiation policy, says Vasile Pu?ca?, a Romanian scholar and diplomat who was his country’s chief negotiator in the EU accession talks.

Romania has two months to react to a warning from the European Commission, which has identified serious problems in the country's anti-corruption procedures in the implementation of programmes in the field of transport, regional development and competitiveness, a spokesperson said today (26 October).

Western and Eastern European governments fighting over some billions less or more to the EU's next multi-annual budget (2014-2020) would better focus on how to spend this precious resource, writes Miroslav Mojžiš.