At today’s meeting of the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER), members of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) held a 0key debate on the territorial implications of the EU's green and digital transformation of mobility. EPP-CoR members underlined the urgency of ensuring that infrastructure, funding, and implementation strategies match policy ambitions, and that rural and peripheral areas are not left behind in the transition.
Csaba Borboly, CoR rapporteur for the opinion “Towards a socially fair implementation of the Green Deal” and President of Harghita County Council (Romania), stressed that small and mountainous regions face unique structural disadvantages: “My region, in the northern corner of Romania, is 90% mountainous, with many settlements of fewer than 300 inhabitants. National strategies often ignore such minority regions. That’s why at least 35% of the Social Climate Fund (SCF) should be managed directly by local and regional authorities—they know where investments are most needed. Moreover, digital mobility is only fair if it is accessible to all. We must build digital literacy into SCF deployment. The green transition must not be a privilege of cities—it must include rural communities too.”
Ribau Esteves, Mayor of Aveiro (Portugal), called for EU funding mechanisms to better reflect the real costs of innovation and cross-border technological integration: “Mobility-related innovation isn't currently considered an eligible EU expense—but it must be. Let me share a real example: building an electric ferry in Portugal using expertise from Germany, Denmark, and Norway. Originally estimated at €6 million with 40% EU co-financing, the project ballooned to €10 million due to COVID and supply monopolies. The final co-financing dropped to 25%. If the EU wants innovation, it must also share the risks—not hide behind bureaucracy.”
Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and COTER 1st Vice-Chair, warned against a policy-infrastructure mismatch and emphasized the need for pragmatic planning: “I support the green transition fully, but we must not put the cart before the horse. A citizen told me: ‘We have no infrastructure for green cars, so how can we support them?’ From Cluj-Napoca to Bucharest, you can't drive an electric car without worrying about charging points. When blackouts struck Valencia recently, even the metro and electric buses were paralyzed. So my message is simple: be balanced and realistic. Setting goals without infrastructure leads to public distrust. If we are serious about banning combustion engines by 2035, we must first prepare the ground—literally.”