Improvements to the future Cohesion policy should be proposed in a timely manner, well ahead of the next Multiannual Financial Framework set-up. This was a main message of Raffaele Cattaneo during his speech at the EPP public hearing on “Acceleration of implementation of Cohesion policy” in the European Parliament today. Cattaneo, chairman of the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget underlined that EPP/CoR group has started early their work on the future architecture of this EU policy.
President of the Lombardia Regional Council outlined his personal 3-S strategy in order to improve the quality and the approach of the Future Cohesion Policy, based on solidarity, subsidiarity and simplification.
"Future Cohesion policy needs to be based on solidarity. In the light of the growing regional divide in Europe, we need cohesion policy more than ever. Subsidiarity as the local and regional level have best knowledge about their strengths and weaknesses and how to tackle them. And simplification, as many of the current regulations are perceived as too bureaucratic and complex by the managing authorities" underlined Cattaneo.
Debating with Lambert van Nistelrooij, Ivana Maletić, Stanislav Polčak, Andrey Novakov and Jan Olbrycht, Members of the European Parliament, many panelists outlined the challenges ahead of cohesion policy to be tackled: growing disparities in Europe, current refugee crisis and demographic change or lack of clarity in combining structural funds with financial instruments.
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According to Eurobarometer data:
- Just over a third (34%) of Europeans said that they had heard about EU co-financed projects to improve the area in which they live. Country-level awareness of EU co-financed projects ranges from just over three quarters (76%) of those interviewed in Poland to under one tenth (9%) of respondents in the United Kingdom.
- Just under half (49%) of Europeans said they had heard of either the European Regional Development Fund or the Cohesion Fund. Public awareness has slightly declined since the last survey. Approximately a fifth (21%) of those who said they had heard of those funds also said that they had benefited personally from an EU-funded project.
- (57%) thought that decisions should be taken at sub-national levels. Nearly a third of those interviewed (30%) opted for the regional level and just over a quarter (27%) favoured the local level.