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Adopted text

Ninth report on economic and social cohesion

TA-10-2025-0098 · P10_TA(2025)0098 · PE766.926

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Parliament's resolution on the ninth report on economic and social cohesion insists that cohesion policy keep its regional, place-based approach and calls for robust funding post-2027, with at least current levels in real terms. It demands simplification, flexibility, and clear demarcation from other EU instruments, rejecting top-down centralisation and performance-based funding linked to centrally defined reforms. It calls for tailored support for regions facing demographic decline, development traps, outermost regions, and those affected by Russia's war, and for stronger urban-rural links and affordable housing. It stresses the importance of territorial cooperation, Interreg, and cross-border projects, and calls for cohesion principles to be integrated across all EU policies.

Key points

  1. Insists that cohesion policy's regional focus, place-based approach, and partnership-based implementation be continued and deepened as the EU's main long-term investment instrument.
  2. Calls for clear demarcation between cohesion policy and other instruments, and expresses concern about performance-based approaches linked to centrally defined reforms.
  3. Opposes top-down centralisation and calls for greater decentralisation and involvement of local and regional authorities in shared management programmes.
  4. Emphasises that the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development must align with cohesion policy rules to boost synergies.
  5. Calls for robust funding for cohesion policy post-2027, at least at current levels in real terms, and for it to remain a separate heading in the next multiannual financial framework.
  6. Proposes that the next MFF be more responsive to unforeseen needs, but stresses cohesion policy is not a crisis instrument; calls for a strengthened European Union Solidarity Fund.
  7. Recognises the need for NUTS 3 classification in specific cases, but insists regional GDP per capita remains the main allocation criterion.
  8. Stresses rule of law conditionality and respect for fundamental rights in cohesion policy implementation, highlighting the role of anti-fraud bodies.
  9. Calls for further simplification, flexibility, and streamlining of rules, including increased co-financing, higher pre-financing, and reduced duplicating controls.
  10. Calls for a European strategy for harmonious growth, investment in connectivity and green industries, and support for innovation to reduce regional disparities.
  11. Calls for continued financing of just transition, with the Just Transition Fund fully integrated into the Common Provisions Regulation and reinforced post-2027.
  12. Calls for support for regions in development traps, demographic decline, and with severe handicaps, including tailored programmes for talent retention and essential services.

Who is affected

  • Local and regional authorities, economic and civil society actors: greater involvement and decentralisation in cohesion policy.
  • Regions in development traps, rural, remote, outermost, and border regions: targeted support and increased co-financing.
  • Cities and urban areas: specific agenda, more direct access to EU funding, and support for affordable housing.
  • Cross-border regions and Interreg beneficiaries: continued support and increased means for cross-border cooperation.
  • Member States and national authorities: must respect additionality and consider internal cohesion in fund implementation.

Figures and deadlines

  • Cohesion policy supported over 4.4 million businesses and created more than 370,000 jobs by end of 2022.
  • Each euro invested in 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 programmes will generate 1.3 euros of additional GDP by 2030.
  • Cohesion policy constituted on average around 13% of total public investment in the EU.
  • EUR 24.6 billion, or 8% of rural development pillar, is directed to investments in rural areas beyond farming.
  • Over EUR 140 billion will be invested in green and digital transitions between 2021 and 2027.
  • Absorption rate of 2021-2027 cohesion funds is currently just 6%.
  • 79% of citizens aware of EU-funded projects believe they have a positive impact.
  • Awareness of EU-funded projects has 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.