Skip to content
DRAFT 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-PA-787661

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Matthias Ecke

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ 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, the Cohesion Fund and Interreg for 2028-2034 as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plans. It says the proposal merges distinct funds into one plan per member state without a dedicated budget allocation for each, and warns this risks weakening cohesion spending. It calls for ring-fenced allocations for each instrument, dedicated budget lines in the long-term budget, and earmarking of the ERDF cohesion envelope per category of region. It asks for the full involvement of regional and local authorities, stronger parliamentary oversight, and sufficient qualified staff throughout the programming period.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgets finds that the proposal lacks dedicated envelopes and budget lines for each instrument, and calls for ring-fenced allocations, dedicated budget lines in the long-term budget, earmarking per category of region, involvement of regional and local authorities, and stronger parliamentary oversight.

Key points

  1. The Committee on Budgets carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure.
  2. The proposal establishes the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and Interreg as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plans for 2028-2034.
  3. The NRP Regulation allocates EUR 782.8 billion to the partnership plans, at least EUR 217.8 billion ring-fenced for less developed regions, and EUR 10.2 billion to the Interreg Plan.
  4. The financial resources for regional development and cohesion within the partnership plans should be ring-fenced at a level no lower than a number to be inserted from the interim report on the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework.
  5. The committee considers that merging different policies into one plan per member state politicises the distribution of EU funds and disrupts the current architecture of cohesion spending.
  6. It stresses that the exact level of resources cannot be determined in advance because no dedicated envelope is set in the basic act, hampering the budgetary authority's ability to assess and monitor investment.
  7. It calls for clearly ring-fenced allocations for the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and Interreg, with their specific objectives defined in the specific regulation, and for the lead committee to coordinate its amendments.
  8. It deplores the absence of dedicated budget lines for the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund in the long-term budget and calls for a sufficient number of such lines for cohesion policy objectives.
  9. It calls for the full involvement of regional and local authorities in the design, monitoring and implementation of funds, based on shared management, multi-level governance and partnership.
  10. It considers that cohesion funding must be accessible to all territories and calls for the overall envelope for ERDF cohesion policy interventions to be earmarked per category of region.
  11. It insists on sufficiently detailed legislation and recommends provisions to strengthen control over how the budget is mobilised and spent, saying a steering mechanism cannot replace Parliament's powers.
  12. It takes note of proposed complementarity between the funds and other programmes, stresses that this must not harm traceability of expenditure, and calls for sufficient qualified human resources throughout the programming period.

Who is affected

  • Regional and local authorities: to be fully involved in designing, monitoring and implementing the funds.
  • Member states: their programming choices and top-up decisions would determine the effective allocation of funds.
  • Less developed regions: at least EUR 217.8 billion is ring-fenced for them under the NRP Regulation.
  • The budgetary authority: it would gain dedicated budget lines and stronger oversight over cohesion funding.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 782.8 billion allocated to the National and Regional Partnership Plans.
  • At least EUR 217.8 billion ring-fenced for less developed regions.
  • EUR 10.2 billion allocated to the Interreg Plan.
  • Period 2028-2034 for the Union support to regional development.

Legal basis: Articles 174-178 TFEU provide the legal basis for EU cohesion policy.