During today's debate with the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu, at the European Committee of the Regions plenary session, it was concluded that the positive impact that EU Cohesion policy brings to the EU citizens on a daily basis needs to be better explained and communicated, in order to streamline debate on the future of this policy after 2020.

While the CoR President Markku Markkula stressed that "EU cohesion funding delivers growth and jobs as well as contributes to tackling climate change and reduces Europe's energy dependence", Commissioner Creţu warned that "the discussion on the future of cohesion policy will not be easy and a more fundamental reflection on its functioning is needed".

The regional policy Commissioner underlined that European regional and local authorities will have an essential role to play in the debate, noting CoR's reflection group on the Future of Cohesion policy. She explained that the future of cohesion policy will mostly depend on the quality of its current function, "I believe that the best preparation for tomorrow is doing our best today".

Addressing the Commissioner on behalf of the EPP Group, Raffaele Cattaneo, Chairman of the CoR's COTER commission, called for the strengthening of the territorial dimension of EU legislation and increased application of the Territorial Impact Assessment.  While welcoming efforts to set up the EU Urban Agenda, he stressed a need for urgent actions in the area, "after 20 years of debate, declarations and resolutions there is still no EU Urban Agenda. It is time to move from words to actions and the European Commission should play its part" he suggested. Finally he called for further simplification of the implementation of ESI funds, "we welcome the Commission's efforts in that regard, but they must also take on board managing authorities".

Addressing Corina Creţu on behalf of the Polish regions, President of Wielkopolska Marek Woźniak appealed to maintain the current model of implementation of cohesion policy in his country, in which part of the funding is implemented successfully by the regions, "we, the representatives of Polish local authorities fear that the Polish government wants to ask the European Commission to renegotiate a contract of partnership and regional programs, in order to overthrow governments managing funds and pass it to government officials," he warned.

Further vies from the EPP Group were voiced during the debate including Ivan Žagar calling on the Commission's help in maintenance of respect for the partnership principle and role of local and regional authorities in the policies design, Herwig Van Staa also referred to the successes of EGTC platform and macroregional strategies strongly advocated by the CoR, while Mark Weinmeister addressed the need for further simplification of the cohesion policy implementation.