Skip to content
REPORT (2024/2107(INI))

On the ninth report on economic and social cohesion

A-10-2025-0066

Committee on Regional Development · Rapporteur: Jacek Protas

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull textProcedure & committee votes
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

The resolution responds to the Commission's ninth report on economic and social cohesion, setting out Parliament's position on the future of cohesion policy after 2027. It insists on maintaining the place-based, partnership-based model, calls for robust funding in the next multiannual financial framework, and demands simplification and flexibility. It addresses regional disparities, demographic change, rural and urban needs, outermost regions, cross-border cooperation, and support for regions affected by Russia's war against Ukraine.

Committee position. The Committee on Regional Development proposes a resolution that sets out Parliament's position on the future of cohesion policy, insisting on its core principles and calling for robust funding and simplification.

Key points

  1. Insists that cohesion policy keep its regional and local focus, place-based approach, and partnership principle, and continue as the EU's main long-term investment instrument.
  2. Calls for clear demarcation between cohesion policy and other instruments, and cautions against a one-size-fits-all performance-based approach.
  3. Opposes top-down centralisation of EU funding programmes and calls for greater decentralisation to local and regional levels.
  4. Calls for robust funding for cohesion policy post-2027, at least the same level in real terms, and a separate heading in the next multiannual financial framework.
  5. Calls for further simplification, flexibility, and streamlining of rules, including increased co-financing, higher pre-financing, and reduced administrative burden.
  6. Urges support for regions in development traps, demographic decline, and with severe natural handicaps, including tailored programmes for talent retention.
  7. Calls for a tailored approach for outermost regions, considering their unique challenges and potential.
  8. Emphasises the need for a specific agenda for cities, including affordable housing and better access to EU funding.
  9. Calls for support to regions affected by Russia's war against Ukraine, especially eastern border regions, and welcomes the BRIDGEforEU regulation.
  10. Calls for stronger integration of the 'do no harm to cohesion' principle across EU policies and better territorial impact assessment.
  11. Notes with concern the decline in national funding for poorer regions and calls for respect of the additionality rule.
  12. Calls for cohesion funds to be accessible to the smallest projects and project bearers, and approves the Cohesion Alliance's call for a policy that leaves no one behind.

Who is affected

  • Local and regional authorities, economic and civil society actors: calls for their enhanced involvement in cohesion policy.
  • Rural areas: calls for cohesion policy to be more inclusive and adjustable to rural needs.
  • Outermost regions: calls for a tailored approach to address their unique challenges.
  • Regions on the EU's eastern border affected by Russia's war: calls for support and tailored tools.
  • Cities and urban areas: calls for a specific agenda and more direct access to EU funding.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 24.6 billion, or 8% of the rural development pillar of the common agricultural policy, directed to rural investments beyond farming.
  • Over EUR 140 billion invested in green and digital transitions between 2021 and 2027.
  • Absorption rate of 2021-2027 cohesion funds currently at just 6%.
  • 79% of citizens aware of EU-funded projects believe they have a positive impact.
  • Awareness of EU-funded projects decreased by 2 percentage points since 2021.

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 4, 162, 174 to 178, and 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.