Skip to content
BUDGETARY ASSESSMENT (COM(2025)0552 – C100168/2025 – 2025/0238(COD))

On the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Fund for Regional Development including for European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg) and the Cohesion Fund as part of the Fund set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRP] and establishing conditions for the implementation of the Union support to regional development from 2028 to 2034

BUDG-AD-787661

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Matthias Ecke

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull textProcedure & committee votes
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 25 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 Committee on Budgets gives its budgetary assessment of the proposed regulation setting up the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund (CF) and Interreg for 2028-2034 as part of the national and regional partnership plans. It says the programme envelope should be EUR 306 932 361 500 in current prices (EUR 274 338 469 500 in 2025 prices) to keep cohesion funding at the level of the current multiannual financial framework. It calls for clearly ring-fenced allocations and defined objectives for the ERDF, the CF and Interreg, and for a detailed budgetary nomenclature broken down per fund and per specific objective. It asks for the full involvement of regional and local authorities, civil society and territorial partners, and for funding accessible to all territories, including outermost regions, islands and eastern regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. It insists that substantive policy choices be decided in the regulation, that Parliament keep control over how resources are combined across instruments, and that fraud prevention and audit frameworks protect the Union's financial interests.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgets proposes that the lead committee amend the proposal to set the programme envelope at EUR 306 932 361 500 in current prices, ring-fence allocations for the ERDF, the CF and Interreg, and add a detailed budgetary nomenclature per fund and specific objective.

Key points

  1. The proposal establishes the ERDF, the CF and Interreg as part of the national and regional partnership plans (NRPPs) for 2028-2034, with Interreg incorporated into a shared basic act.
  2. The proposed NRP Regulation allocates EUR 782.8 billion to the NRPPs, of which at least EUR 217.8 billion is ring-fenced for less developed regions, and EUR 10.2 billion to the Interreg Plan.
  3. The committee considers the programme envelope should be EUR 306 932 361 500 in current prices (EUR 274 338 469 500 in 2025 prices) to at least maintain cohesion funding at the current MFF level.
  4. It says merging different policies into one plan per Member State politicises fund distribution, creates competition between policies and uncertainty for beneficiaries, and risks weakening cohesion spending.
  5. It stresses that the exact resources for regional development and cohesion cannot be determined ex ante, as no dedicated envelope is set in the basic act and allocation depends on Member States' programming choices.
  6. It calls for clearly ring-fenced allocations and clearly defined specific objectives for the ERDF, the CF and Interreg, while keeping a horizontal implementation framework including rule of law and fundamental rights.
  7. It deplores the lack of budget lines for the ERDF and the CF in the Legislative Financial and Digital Statement and recommends breaking down the overall envelope per fund and per specific objective.
  8. It deplores the insufficiently detailed indicative budgetary nomenclature, warns it increases the Commission's discretion over transfers, and recommends a more detailed nomenclature reflecting the objectives of the three instruments.
  9. It recalls that the budgetary nomenclature must follow Article 47(2) of the Financial Regulation, recommends an annex defining the nomenclature, and insists the nomenclature form part of interinstitutional negotiations and the final agreement.
  10. It calls for full involvement of regional and local authorities in designing, monitoring and evaluating the funds, and for early, structured involvement of civil society and territorial partners.
  11. It calls for funding accessible to all territories, including outermost regions, islands and eastern regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and for the ERDF envelope to be earmarked per category of region.
  12. It insists that substantive policy choices be determined in the ERDF/CF/Interreg Regulation, that the 'steering mechanism' not substitute for Parliament's powers, and that complementarity with other programmes keep expenditure traceable.

Who is affected

  • Member States and their national authorities, which design the national plans and decide programming choices and top-ups.
  • Regional and local authorities, civil society and territorial partners, which should be fully involved in design, monitoring and evaluation.
  • Less developed regions, outermost regions, islands and eastern regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, which the funding should reach.
  • Final beneficiaries, who face uncertainty over funding predictability under the merged plan.
  • The Commission, which would gain latitude to shift spending priorities and transfer resources under the proposed architecture.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 782.8 billion allocated to the NRPPs under the proposed NRP Regulation.
  • At least EUR 217.8 billion ring-fenced for less developed regions under Article 10(2)(a)(i).
  • EUR 10.2 billion to the Interreg Plan under Article 10(2)(c).
  • EUR 306 932 361 500 in current prices proposed as the programme envelope.
  • EUR 274 338 469 500 in 2025 prices proposed as the programme envelope.
  • Programming period 2028-2034 for the funds.

Legal basis: Articles 174-178 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).