The plenary session of the new European Parliament held on 16-19 July 2024 decided to set up 20 Committees and four Sub-committees. The Committee on Regional Development (REGI) addresses such important issues as cohesion policy and macro-regional cooperation matters. The REGI Committee has 41 members. The list of new members of the new Committee on Regional Development is available here.
On 23 July, REGI Committee members elected their new Chair and four Vice-Chairs during the constitutive meeting. Adrian-Dragoș Benea (S&D, RO) was elected Chair of the Regional Development Committee by acclamation.
“The REGI Committee will face two challenges: to ensure smooth implementation of the 2021-2027 period and prepare new cohesion policy package. We need to safeguard the key pillars of our Cohesion Policy: robust budget, shared management, multilevel governance, a place-based approach and the partnership principle. I will make sure our committee is fully involved in all stages of designing the new investment capacity,” said Adrian-Dragoș Benea after his election.
REGI committee MEPs also elected four Vice-Chairs:
1st Vice-Chair: Gabriella Gerzsenyi (EPP, HU) – elected by acclamation.
2nd Vice-Chair: Nora Mebarek (S&D, FR) – elected by acclamation.
3rd Vice-Chair: Francesco Ventola (ECR, IT) – elected by 21 votes for, 11 against and 7 abstentions.
4th Vice-Chair: Ľubica Karvašová (Renew, SK) – elected by 28 votes in favour against another candidate Rody Tolassy (Patriots, FR), who received 12 votes in favour.
The new composition reflects the following distribution per political group: 11 EPP, 8 S&D, 5 Patriots, 4 Renew, 4 ECR, 3 Greens, 3 Left, 2 NI, 1 ESN. By contrast, the distribution was as follows during the last mandate: 11 EPP, 8 S&D, 6 Renew, 5 Greens, 5 ECR, 3 ID, 2 Left, 2 NI.
When compared to the last mandate, the new REGI Committee seems to be much more fragmented with mainstream parties having less seats. The Patriots for Europe (PfE or Patriots), a new right-wing to far-right sovereigntist political group formed as the third-largest group ahead of the 10th European Parliament, has 5 Members. This makes the Patriots the third largest group in the REGI Committee in line with the Rules of Procedures.
The composition of the new REGI Committee according to Member States is as follows: 5 DE, 5 RO, 5 FR, 4 IT, 3 HU, 2 ES, 2 PL, 2 BG, 2 EL, 2 IE, 1 BE, 1 PT, 1 LT, 1 SK, 1 HR, 1 SI, 1 LV, 1 CZ and 1 NL. It is important to analyse the composition of the Committee according to Member States as net contributors may be less willing to implement the cohesion policy or less generous while preparing a new cohesion policy package.
The Cohesion Fund provides support to Member States with a gross national income (GNI) per capita below 90% EU-27 average to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the EU. For the 2021-2027 period, the Cohesion Fund concerns Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
While beneficiaries, such as Romania, are relatively well represented followed by Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and Estonia, others, such as Malta, are not represented at all. Moreover, members from big Member States, such as Germany and France followed by Italy and Spain, have a big say in the Committee. In comparison to the last mandate, more countries are represented during the new legislature, albeit with only one member.
