Today, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira and the President of the Committee of the Regions, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, launched the 22nd European Week of Regions and Cities during a press conference in Brussels.
The four-day event will bring together a diverse mix of stakeholders, project promotors and practitioners, researchers, and journalists, and will provide an opportunity to look back on the many achievements of Cohesion Policy during the current Commission mandate.
It's also an opportunity to discuss how the Policy can best continue to fulfil its EU Treaty mission of promoting economic, social, and territorial cohesion across the EU.
Cohesion Policy delivering for a better Europe since its creation
Cohesion Policy has for decades played a crucial role as Europe's convergence machine, helping less developed regions to catch up with the EU average. This has ranged from supporting the construction of critical, missing infrastructure links, such as the Pelješac bridge in Croatia and the Brăila bridge in Romania, as well as providing support to the area of research and development, for example, by helping to procure supercomputers and robotic facilities.
Over the past five years, Cohesion Policy has continued to deliver for European citizens, by:
- supporting 2.7 million businesses;
- expanding education infrastructure and equipment benefitting around 18 million children and young people;
- supporting the creation of 260,000 jobs in new enterprises;
- safeguarding 13.5 million people thanks to flood protection measures;
- enhancing the energy performance of 380,000 households;
- improving the broadband connection for 3.1 million households; and
- supporting at least 12.8 million people to participate in education and training.
During the current mandate alone, Cohesion Policy has been at the forefront of the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has supported efforts to welcome Ukrainian refugees following Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and help Europeans deal with the ensuing energy crisis. It quickly mobilised billions of euros to help all EU regions face the effects of these unprecedented crises, helping them to bounce back economically.
Cohesion Policy remained steadfast during these times, continuing to translate the Commission's political priorities into concrete actions on the ground, with substantial support for the green and digital transitions, and job growth and employment.
Most notably, it came forward with a new Just Transition Fund (JTF), which is directing €19.7 billion to help the economic and social diversification of the 96 regions across all EU Member States that are most impacted by the transition to a net-zero economy.
The EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) during the current mandate has supported 20 EU countries and four candidate countries to deal with the impact of major catastrophes, offering a total of €4.6 billion in support. This has helped countries recover from major, natural climate disasters such as floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, as well as deal with the consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Making Europe more competitive in the future
The current 2021 – 2027 generation of Cohesion Policy programmes also strives to guarantee Europe's economic security and European citizens prosperity in the future. Under the EU's flagship initiative 'Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform' (STEP) launched this year, Cohesion Policy is investing in critical technologies such as clean tech, deep tech and biotech, which are key for the energy transition and Europe's future competitiveness.
In just seven months since the launch of STEP, Member States have proposed investments worth more than €6 billion via the Cohesion Policy programmes to support these technologies. For example, Romania plans to allocate €261 million in Cohesion Funds to large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) research projects, while the region of Cantabria in Spain is earmarking €15.5 million to a green lithium production project for the automotive sector.
Ensuring Cohesion Policy is fit for the future
With less than a year before the Commission will table its Cohesion Policy proposals for the 2028 – 2034 programming period, discussions on the future design of the Policy are essential to ensure that it continues to fulfil its mission of reducing economic, social, and territorial disparities across the EU.
Drawing lessons from the implementation of Cohesion Policy to date, ongoing discussions include the adoption of a more performance-based model, strengthening the link between reforms and investments, offering built-in flexibilities to react to unforeseen events, and faster implementation and simplification.
Background
The European Week of Regions and Cities is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to Cohesion Policy. Under the motto 'Empowering Communities', this year's edition will welcome approximately 5,000 participants across nearly 200 sessions, to discuss common challenges for Europe's regions and cities.
Sessions will cover topics such as Cohesion Policy's contribution to enhance competitiveness and convergence in European regions and cities, and ways to improve smart and sustainable growth and to strengthen European democracy.
