In a workshop held during the European Week of Regions and Cities, experts and politicians talked about the achievements and challenges of cohesion funds. The European Union has no competence in dealing with the administrative systems of member states, but there are tools with which they can improve the chance that funds will reach the regions where they are most needed.
After the welcome session and the political opening of the EU Regions Week in Brussels, the first workshop on the 11th of October was about the achievements of the 2014-2020 period and the new challenges during the 2021-2027 cycle.
Marc Lemaitre, Director General at the European Commission’s department for regional policy, mentioned the war in Ukraine and the refugee issue, starting from the angle of the energy crisis it also brought. The speaker presented these main problems that are putting pressure on the cohesion funds for the 2021-2027 period. Mr. Lemaitre also said that the flexibility of these funds helped SMEs, households, and local and regional municipalities to tackle these challenges.
Emil Boc, mayor of Cluj-Napoca and former prime minister of Romania, pointed out that European funds helped the city to become the regional capital of the Transylvania region, and underlined that Romania and the Central-Eastern European region are the greatest beneficiaries of cohesion policy. In connection to this, Mr. Boc said that we cannot restrict freedom of movement and that the member states which joined later the EU should find a solution to become an attractive opportunity for people to settle. This would be possible thanks to the cohesion funds, for example.
But whose responsibility is it to implement the reforms? Mario Nova, Director General at the European Commission’s department for structural reform support, reflected on the question: in the end, the method of implementing reforms and distributing cohesion funds is up to the member states and their administrative systems. “Money is essential, but you also need the expertise to make sure the money is well-spent” – said Mr. Nova.
Cohesion policy should be territory-based and imply the collective responsibility to encourage reducing inequality, as Nathalie Sarrabezolles, Councilor of the French Department of Finistère, has emphasized. “Cohesion policy works, but it has to improve” – told the politician, who thinks that sometimes recovery funds miss the targets. She added that decentralization is very important to find the balance in countries and regions, and is efficient to avoid situations like the current crises, leading metropolitan regions to recover faster than rural areas.
Decentralization and regionalization should be the basic principles in cohesion policy. At the same time, the European Commission claims that it cannot intervene if a country has a centralized administrative system. This contradiction is also reflected in the distribution of cohesion funds. Emil Boc mentioned that it is a sensitive topic in his country and that Romania has been a very centralized country for years until the regionalization took place. The speakers stressed mostly cases of centralization in Hungary and Poland. The issue of centralization regarding funds is also a problem in Slovakia: the southern regions do not get enough funds because the regional administrative structure is orientated in a North-South direction.
Experts said that during the 2021-2027 period, more focus will be put on the less developed rural regions. Governments also made a covenant stating that at least 65% of cohesion funds will be spent on developing these territories. However, Mr. Lemaitre underlined that the European Union has no competence in discussing the internal administrative structures of member states. At the same time, it is important to know that during the current 2021-2027 period, municipalities, educational institutions and trade unions should be involved in the decision-making process about the distribution of funds. If any of them find something problematic, then the issue should be investigated. Is the problem too big for them to solve? The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) could then act.
István Faragó
Edited by Clémence Maquet
