What changed

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Follow-up to the European Parliament non-legislative resolution on the implementation of territorial development (CPR, Title III, Chapter II) and its application in the European Territorial agenda 2030

SUGGESTIONS

Rapporteur: Marcos ROS SEMPERE (S&D / ES)

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development calls on the Committee on Regional Development, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

Reference number: 2023/2048 (INI) /A9-0420/2023 / P9_TA(2024)0010

A. whereas rural areas face the urgent challenges of demographic decline and ageing, especially affecting EU farming populations, along with rural abandonment, lack of access to infrastructure and services, low incomes and fewer job opportunities;

Date of adoption of the resolution: 16 January 2024

B. whereas the digital and green transitions offer opportunities for stronger, connected, resilient, innovative and prosperous rural areas in the long term;

Competent Parliamentary Committee: Committee on Regional Development (REGI)

C. whereas the European Territorial Agenda 2030 calls for the territorial dimension of sectoral policies to be strengthened at all governance levels;

Brief analysis/ assessment of the resolution and requests made in it:

1. Recalls that small and family farms are the backbone of EU rural areas, providing food security and ecosystem services for European citizens;

The resolution stresses that, in the 2014-2020 period, only 28 % of strategies for sustainable urban development were implemented through integrated territorial investments (ITIs). The Parliament calls for take action to encourage the use of such tools to develop the Territorial agenda 2030 (TA2030) in particular through stepped-up communication activities and to reinforce LEADER/community-led local development (CLLD) by increasing its budgetary envelope. The Parliament calls on the Commission and the Council to earmark funding for rural areas and regions that suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps. It calls on the Commission for an effective implementation of the partnership principle. It also stresses the need to simplify the administrative management of funds.

2. Stresses the importance of improving the policy coherence and rural proofing of future EU initiatives to effectively prevent rural depopulation and to facilitate generational renewal, broadband access and job creation in rural areas;

The Parliament calls on the Member States and the Commission to promote the implementation of the TA2030 beyond pilot actions and calls on the Commission to develop monitoring indicators linking the TA2030 and the use of Cohesion Policy funds, in particular the European Regional Development Fund. The resolution stresses the need to design programmes that take all territories into account, including metropolitan, urban and functional areas; to design LEADER in such a way that it can be used by small cities and to simplify access to funds by identifying ‘one-stop shops’ for potential beneficiaries of EU ITI or CLLD projects. The Commission is called to strengthen the territorial dimension of the European Semester, to connect the experience gained in the implementation of the TA2030 with the future Cohesion Policy and the recommendations of the High-Level Group on the Future of Cohesion Policy and to explore new ways of raising further awareness on their rationale and of substantially increasing the use of ITIs and CLLDs, also by potentially earmarking a percentage to be used in the post-2027 Cohesion Policy framework.

3. Reiterates the need for full integration of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas in the current and future cohesion and common agricultural policy (CAP) programming frameworks to ensure that the rural dimension is properly addressed at all governance levels;

Response to requests and overview of actions taken, or intended to be taken, by the Commission:

4. Underlines the potential of the LEADER community-led local development method (CLLD) to engage rural communities in local action groups for the preparation and implementation of targeted local development strategies;

(Paragraph 1) In the 2021-2027 period, the Cohesion Policy regulations provide dedicated territorial policy objective ‘Europe closer to citizens’ and the possibility to choose between one or several of the three tools for integrated territorial strategies (ITI, CLLD or other (national) tool) responding to specific needs of Member States or regions. Almost all Member States have programmed support for place-based investments under the above objective (ca. EUR 19 billion) and twenty Member States use Integrated Territorial Investments with EUR 23 billion planned support from Cohesion Policy funds - mostly in functional urban areas, but also in cities and urban neighbourhoods, rural areas, mountain and island regions. About half the Member States plan to support community-led local development with more than EUR 1.6 billion. Nineteen Member States have planned more than EUR 14 billion for ‘other territorial tools’ implemented in both urban and rural areas. The Commission supports the use of territorial tools by different means, such as the publication of handbooks dedicated to integrated territorial development (see reply in paragraph 36 below), creating a database of integrated territorial development strategies (e.g. Strat-Board database) and has supported the provision of information and examples of territorial strategies and tools. Information on Cohesion Policy instruments and place-based approaches is regularly exchanged also in the context of the dedicated expert group for Territorial Cohesion and Urban Matters as well as by means of the participation of Commission services in the intergovernmental cooperation on TA2030.

5. Points to the importance of facilitating and promoting the use of multi-fund approaches to support the implementation of integrated projects for inclusive and sustainable rural development.

(Paragraph 2) The Commission agrees on the valuable contribution of the instruments, such as community-led local development, that foster more local action. The Commission encourages the Member States to fully use the possibilities provided in the legal frameworks of Cohesion Policy, maritime and fisheries, and common agricultural policy for a multi-fund approach to local development. The Commission agrees that the Local Action Groups must have clear responsibilities in the framework of LEADER/CLLD multi-level governance and notes the need for inclusive Local Action Groups as decision making bodies. In the present legal framework, a list of tasks exclusive to the Local Action Groups is identified, which reinforces their autonomy. The Commission fully supports the need for simplification and actively promotes the use of simplified costs options as a mean to achieve it.

(Paragraph 3) The Commission is finalising its evaluation of LEADER. The results will be based, among others, on the findings from the evaluation support study on the costs and benefits of LEADER, and largely reflect qualitative evidence on the added value of LEADER. Some of the preliminary recommendations from the evaluation of LEADER are already implemented under the Common Agriculture Policy 2023-2027 in particular the recommendations aimed to better demonstrate the added value of LEADER. The Commission encourages the Member States to focus the LEADER/CLLD interventions on areas with highest added value and supports LEADER/CLLD in these endeavours via national and EU rural development networks.

(Paragraph 6) The Commission recalls that Cohesion Policy contributes to the development of all types of territories and the Cohesion Policy legal framework has been designed to offer several possibilities for addressing the specific needs of EU territories. For example, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 Article 10 pays specific attention to the challenges of disadvantaged regions, in particular rural areas and areas suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps. Such targeting can be done in the programmes across all policy objectives. In addition, the new cross-cutting policy objective 5 (‘A Europe closer to citizens’) provides a flexible and adaptable framework to tackle territorial and local challenges through targeted strategies using ITI, CLLD or tools supporting initiatives designed by Member States. A specific targeting for various types of regions based on actual needs can be done by programme authorities across all policy objectives. The Commission takes note of the call to earmark funding for rural areas and regions that suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps. However, it is too early for the Commission to share a position on any specific elements of the Cohesion Policy framework for post-2027.

(Paragraph 7) The partnership principle is one of the corner stones of Cohesion Policy. All relevant stakeholders need to be involved in the design and implementation of Cohesion Policy programmes, including integrated territorial development strategies in line with the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) Articles 8 and 29 respectively.

(Paragraphs 9 and 11) The Commission acknowledges the suggestions of the resolution concerning simplification. A number of simplifications and flexibilities were introduced for the 2021-2027 period as regards the programming and implementation of integrated territorial instruments such as the same basic requirements for all territorial and local strategies in the regulation including a specific role for the territorial authority or body without an intermediary body status, a dedicated and thematically flexible Policy Objective 5 ‘Europe closer to citizens’ and the possibility to compose integrated territorial strategies within any policy objective by using territorial tools.

The Common Provisions Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 was adopted to improve the coordination and harmonise the implementation of support from Funds under shared management, with the main aim of simplifying policy delivery in a coherent way. The CPR sets out a series of common general objectives and general principles such as partnership and multi-level governance common to all Funds. It also contains among other points the common elements of strategic planning and programming, sets out a common approach to the performance orientation and common provisions for CLLD. Moreover, broad specific objectives allow Member States to define their programmes indicating the most appropriate means for achieving those objectives. A variety of measures identified by the Member States in their programmes may be supported under the Fund specific regulations and the CPR.

(Paragraph 19) Since the launch of the first Territorial Agenda pilot actions in 2020, the Commission has facilitated the implementation of these joint actions of several Member States and partners by ensuring linkages to relevant European Union policy initiatives and contributing to the awareness of key territorial issues and challenges. The Commission will continue to take part in the discussions within the governance structure of intergovernmental cooperation on Territorial Agenda 2030.

(Paragraph 21) The Partnership Agreements under the CPR outline the planned use of European Union funds in the Member States, and the regulation provides a common basis for integrated territorial strategies under the European Union funds. The managing authorities in shared management can effectively reinforce and facilitate coordination and cooperation.

(Paragraph 22) The Commission agrees with the relevant role of businesses in territorial strategies, such as in Cohesion Policy supported sustainable urban development strategies focused on innovation eco-systems, green economy or tourism, and partners in smart specialisation strategies. The managing authorities in shared management are responsible for ensuring these collaborations.

(Paragraph 27) The Commission is promoting TA2030 in Cohesion Policy implementation. It should also be stressed that all the Cohesion Policy Funds and all the 2021-2027 policy objectives are making relevant contribution to TA2030 implementation, including through investments in green and just transition.

(Paragraph 31) The Commission acknowledges the importance of all territories. Under shared management, the Member States have the possibility to address the needs of different territories in their respective programming documents. Aligned with Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the ERDF Regulation (recital 46) also stresses the need for territorial development to be based on integrated strategies in urban and rural areas and to pay attention to urban-rural linkages.

(Paragraphs 32, 35, 38 and 41) The Commission agrees on the need to raise further awareness on the rationale of territorial tools, also taking into account the need for flexibility and adaptability of the policies in the management of European Union funds. Most Member States have made use of the new policy objective 5 Europe closer to citizens in their 2021-27 programming, which provides the possibility for dedicated urban focused integrated strategies and strategies dedicated to other territories such as rural areas, islands or mountain areas, delivered through specific territorial tools. Support to place-based instruments even in the absence of earmarking is significant in Cohesion Policy. It is currently too early to discuss concrete elements of the post-2027 proposals such as the suggested mechanism for earmarking in this context. The Commission, however, takes note of this suggestion from the European Parliament.

(Paragraph 33) A midterm stocktaking of TA2030 is being carried out in 2024. It will review the governance, the implementation and relevance of the priorities to address current challenges and achieve the goals of territorial cohesion.

(Paragraph 36) The Cohesion Policy is implemented in shared management with the Member States, where the responsibility for implementation lies with the programme authorities. To facilitate capacity building, planning and implementation of integrated territorial development the Commission carries out a broad range of activities, which amongst others include specific handbooks: the Handbook on Sustainable Urban Development Strategies and the Handbook on Territorial and Local Development Strategies, providing strategic planning and methodological support, information on how to use European Union funds and territorial instruments, and practical examples. To further improve access to information especially for rural actors, the Commission has also launched a Rural toolkit, an online guide to different European Union funding and support opportunities for rural areas. Moreover, the availability of technical assistance under Cohesion Policy programmes provides Member states with further possibilities to foster effective and efficient implementation of funds in line with their specific needs. Through the European Urban Initiative implemented in indirect management, the Commission offers dedicated support for the implementation of sustainable urban development covering cities of all sizes.

(Paragraph 39) The European Semester is an important reference point for the planning and delivery of Cohesion Policy. Therefore, the Commission has taken steps to reinforce the territorial dimension of the European Semester. The country reports include an analysis of economic and social performance at regional level, identifying disparities between regions. The Commission seeks to improve this analysis within the European Semester wherever possible, because a good understanding of the regional disparities and dynamics is in many cases necessary for the EU, the Member States and their regions to effectively address the challenges they face. Multi-level governance and partnership, including the involvement of regional and local stakeholders, are among the key features of Cohesion Policy. This enables Cohesion Policy to successfully tackle national challenges and regional needs, while also making a difference in areas, which are a joint priority for the entire European Union.