The Committee on Regional Development (REGI) of the European Parliament (EP) had a debate with Raffaele Fitto, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms at its meeting on 28 January 2025. Responding to questions of the MEPs, Fitto said that the midterm review will provide a formal and administrative opportunity to address most of the issues raised by the Committee, to strengthen the cohesion policy and to provide better perspectives for it while promising to involve REGI Members in the process as much as possible. He stressed that the current programmes were discussed prior to 2022, before the partnership agreement was signed between the European Commission (EC) and national governments.
“Due to low absorption rate, spending comes through on a basis of decisions which go back 4-5 years. The economic situation has changed by then and the result is that we might not be doing something useful anymore. I have written a letter to the 27 Ministers working on cohesion policy in Member States (MS). MS, the EP and local authorities are essential to build a new dimension to the cohesion policy. We will work together in order to move things in the right direction”, he added.
Regarding the future of cohesion policy, the Commissioner said that changes would be made to programmes to tackle the issues that are pressing. “The European agenda for cities is a priority. We will be working on that with your involvement in the coming weeks. I held high-level meetings with national, local and regional authorities, including mayors and organisations of mayors. We will continue to exchange views on the agenda on cities”, he highlighted.
Regarding other issues raised by the Committee, such as islands, internal regional areas, outermost regions, he said that it was an essential issue, which was also discussed in Strasbourg last week. “Another meeting will be held on overseas areas with regional presence to find a clear set of solutions. It is important that those areas and regions get the responses to their needs which are specific for them. Hence, the need for coordination with remits of other Commissioners working on agriculture, tourism, transport, fisheries, and blue economy. There will be an internal policy communication on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that will be adopted in the coming weeks. These issues are also at the heart of the cohesion policy and a proper approach is needed”, he further commented.
On the issue of competitiveness, he reminded that the competitiveness compass is due to be adopted by the College this week and it is important as cohesion policy is part of that.
After explaining that he was in Finland to visit the Eastern border regions, he confirmed his willingness to go and to listen to the people on the ground in other EU regions, especially border areas, in order to develop policies which provide clear answers.
As for simplification, he underlined the need to make sure that cohesion protects the environment and doesn’t create harm. “It can be both revolution and evolution”, he stated.
As for the second stage of his mandate, he affirmed his willingness to assess his work and to see how successful it has been, how to ensure to get messages across. He promised to come back to the Committee in the coming weeks to share the steps the EC would like to take.
Other questions by MEPs focused on centralisation of the cohesion policy, low absorption rates; depopulation, its impact on food security and infrastructure needs in rural areas; difficult access to farming land for young people and threats to small scale farming, inappropriate criteria based on national GDP, funding for digitalisation and green tech, rule of law, avoidance of over-politisation of funds, red tape and demographic challenges.
Some suggestions by MEPs included extending the integrated territorial mechanism and urban investment mechanism to housing, developing targeted programmes for border regions, including funds for permanent assistance for cross-border regions in the new financial perspective, providing direct access for local governments to some EU funding, rewarding countries that have made no mistake in their spending following the recent report of the Court of Auditors and aligning cohesion policies with climate adaptation needs; and intensifying state aid in different regions.
Fitto reacted by saying that there isn’t a proposal in favour of centralisation and the role of regional and authorities will be essential. “We cannot continue to defend the cohesion policy if we are not providing responses to the problem of low absorption rate. The midterm review is really an important opportunity to try to tackle this issue”.
Regarding red tape, he mentioned the need to have streamlined processes to give suitable responses, which are tied into how we spend money and how we ensure that spending has the right effects in the right areas.
To tackle problems of economic crisis and depopulation, the Commissioner agrees that there is a need for infrastructure development, which is important for job creation and attraction of talent.
As for the rule of law, he said he is open to suggestions to identify smart conditionalities.
While underlining the importance of creating the right conditions to reduce inequalities (i.e., persons with disabilities), he highlighted that he was involved in a working group to support different programmes in different Member States.
“One of the four working groups I am involved in is on housing”, he added. “This is a priority. President Ursula Von der Leyen said that the EU would be doubling the resources to address the problem of housing in the cities in cooperation with mayors from different towns and cities through the agenda for cities”.
“But we also need to be able to provide responses to regional areas, islands, overseas areas. There is the EP resolution on islands and outermost territories of 2022. I was a shadow rapporteur. That provides food for thought and a basis we can work on, trying to understand natural parameters facing those areas while finding immediate responses to disasters and ways to reconstruct those areas to make them more resilient for other natural disasters”, he added.
He promised to be back in the Committee in a month and praised having direct contract with the Coordinators, also inviting other Members to maintain contacts. Recalling the tremendous work to be done before the midterm review, he mentioned the need to extend its scope and the importance of the input from REGI and other Committees”.
“We need these kinds of synergies to work together on cohesion and the fundamental aspects of the policy. We can improve cohesion policy in the future while avoiding the mistake based on the belief that the cohesion policy is untouchable and cannot be changed. We should not do that, otherwise we will be in conflict. There are elements to change in the cohesion policy and there is scope for future improvement. It is important that when it comes to issues raised, how cohesion policy ties in with other programmes like RRF (Recovery and Resilience Fund). Cohesion has its own structure. There is a need to find solutions through streamlining but also through increased government capability”, he concluded.
