Regional Development

Promoting cohesion and economic development

The committee's responsibility is to assess the impact of EU policies on economic and social cohesion to ensure the effective and efficient investment of public funds. It is also responsible for coordinating EU structural instruments.

The EPP Group advocates for cohesion policy as a structural policy to promote growth and economic development across all EU regions and as a key EU instrument for investment in the real economy. It is an expression of European solidarity that reduces economic, social, and territorial disparities. It is also a policy of genuine and common European self-interest for securing jobs and growth across all of Europe's regions.

The proper implementation of the cohesion policy should remain a priority of the EPP Group, and we might have a general implementation report on that before the term is out.

The EPP Group played a leading role in the cohesion policy regulations for 2021-2027, which includes the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) for all the concerned funds, European Regional Development Fund – Cohesion Fund (ERDF-CF) regulation, European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) regulation, and Just Transition Fund (JTF) regulation. Together with the cohesion policy covering part of the European Social Fund+, these regulations are worth 392 billion EUR in smart entrepreneurship, ICT, energy, and mobility infrastructure projects.

In addition, there are regulations responding to emergencies, allowing for the existing cohesion policy funding to be used in response. Two regulations on the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII, CRII+) and one on REACT-EU of 2020, as well as three on assistance to refugees from Ukraine (CARE, CARE+, FAST-CARE) of 2022.

The EPP Group strongly supports thematic concentration, which focuses investments on specific objectives and priorities that correspond to performance indicators and targets specifically set for that theme, making cohesion policy a performance-oriented policy.

For the next mandate, the new post-2027 cohesion policy regulations (and/or any change to the 2021-2027 ones) deal with literally hundreds of billions of euros worth of EU investment programs. The EPP Group emphasises both their necessity and our capability to deal with them properly.