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DRAFT REPORT (2024/2107(INI))

On the ninth report on economic and social cohesion

REGI-PR-766926

Committee on Regional Development · Rapporteur: Jacek Protas

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This draft report responds to the Commission's ninth report on economic and social cohesion. It insists that cohesion policy keep its regional, place-based approach and calls for solid funding, simpler rules, and flexibility for regions. It stresses support for just transition, regions facing demographic challenges, and those affected by Russia's war against Ukraine, and calls for integrating the 'do no harm to cohesion' principle across EU policies.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution that reaffirms the core principles of cohesion policy, calls for adequate funding and simplification, and addresses challenges such as just transition and demographic change.

Key points

  1. Insists that cohesion policy's regional focus, place-based approach, strategic planning, and decentralised model based on partnership and multi-level governance are key and should continue as the EU's main investment instrument.
  2. Stresses that cohesion policy needs solid, ambitious funding to remain the EU's main investment policy while retaining flexibility for new challenges.
  3. Calls for further simplification of rules and procedures for cohesion funds, building on the shared management framework, to encourage broader participation.
  4. Calls on the Commission and member states to give regions greater flexibility at the programming stage and to consider moving away from rigid, uniform thematic concentration.
  5. Acknowledges risks of widening disparities from green and digital transitions and calls for continued financing of just transition, with the Just Transition Fund integrated into the Common Provisions Regulation.
  6. Underlines the need to improve the relationship between cohesion policy and EU economic governance, avoiding a punitive approach, and calls for reflection on macroeconomic conditionality.
  7. Stresses the role of cohesion policy in supporting regions coping with demographic evolution, including depopulation, ageing, brain drain, and skills shortages.
  8. Recognises the importance of specific solutions for regions with severe economic and demographic difficulties, such as improving services and fostering economic diversification.
  9. Calls on the Commission to support member states and regions affected by Russia's war against Ukraine with tailor-made cohesion policy tools, including Interreg.
  10. Recalls the 'do no harm to cohesion' principle and calls for its integration as a cross-cutting principle in all EU policies.

Who is affected

  • Regions and local areas facing demographic challenges, including depopulation and ageing, will receive continued support.
  • Regions bordering Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia affected by the war will get tailored support.
  • Regions undergoing industrial transition, including those affected by automotive and logistics changes, may need just transition support.

Figures and deadlines

  • Cohesion policy supported over 4.4 million businesses and created more than 370,000 jobs by end of 2022.
  • Cohesion policy constituted on average around 13% of total public investment in the EU.
  • Between 2021 and 2027, cohesion policy will invest over EUR 140 billion in green and digital transitions.

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.