The future EU Cohesion Policy needs to better address the needs of European regions and cities. It should also take their diversified situations or circumstances on board. Despite highlighting the vast scope for improvement and simplification, participants of the final conference on the future of Cohesion policy beyond 2020 agreed the primary aim should be to continue diminishing regional disparities across the EU.
"We see, within the EU, some threatening tendencies towards disintegration and disillusionment. We cannot afford to move away from cooperation and solidarity. Perhaps even more today, it is necessary to focus on strengthening cohesion policy, rather than allowing it to be weakened" argued Michael Schneider, EPP/CoR Group President and European Committee of the Regions' rapporteur on the topic.
Schneider claimed that its lack of flexibility should be addressed in the future: "We feel thematic concentration limits us too much, given the challenges that European regions face those days. For a long time, the CoR has been a strong supporter of a place-based approach with much needed flexibility ". Within this context, Maria De Diego Durantez specifically highlighted the need to support regions affected by demographic change.
Raffaele Cattaneo, Chairman of the CoR's commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget, raised the problem of EU Cohesion Policy's perception among citizens:
"Most of the Eurobarometer respondents do not see benefits that Cohesion Policy brings to their daily life, despite it funding hundreds and thousands of projects on the ground. The new Cohesion Policy needs to address that better".
Cattaneo called for the "3S" strategy to be applied in the revision of future Cohesion policy based on Solidarity, Subsidiarity and Simplification. Local and regional authorities should have a leading role in its design, he added: "It is encouraging that majority of the EU citizens would see EU regional policy decisions to be taken at regional (30%) and local (27%) levels, according to data from Eurobarometer".
Markku Markkula, CoR President, underlined that Europe needs cohesion more than ever before. He called for its reform to better address the growing divergence between the European regions:
"Cohesion policy is not perfect, but it plays a pivotal role in shaping the territorial, economic and social future of the EU. We need a better balance between the support to basic infrastructure of weaker regions and an increased competitiveness across all EU regions. To achieve that, we need a real use of the Partnership principle on the ground. Finally, an increased capacity-building and technical assistance for regional and local authorities to ensure the absorption of funds, is necessary"
EPP/CoR alternate member Barbara Schwarz also took part in the conference to highlight the work that Niederösterreich is doing to promote a future cohesion policy for all.