European regions defend cohesion policy: 'It will remain central'
"It will not go through" the centralisation model for the post-2027 European budget planning. The President of the European Committee of the Regions, Kata Tüttő, is certain of this in the light of numerous protests from regional and national representatives. Letter from Massimiliano Fedriga on behalf of the Regions to Ursula von der Leyen
3' min read
3' min read
The alliance in defence of cohesion policy is united. And the president of the European Committee of the Regions, Kata Tüttő, is more than optimistic.
Concerns about the new role the regions might play in the post-2027 EU multi-year budget - to be presented by the Commission on 16 July - have mobilised local governments, ministers, and MEPs. The latest news is a letter from Massimiliano Fedriga, president of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, sent after the State-Regions Conference on 10 July to Ursula von der Leyen. The Italian regions are united in voting against the reform. Not only that, on 25 June a note signed by 149 European regions had already arrived on the Commission president's desk.
The aim of this alliance is to protect cohesion policies, 'to all intents and purposes local policies', says Kata Tüttő in a conversation with The Sun 24 Ore at the end of her meeting in Rome with regional administrators on the occasion of the State-Regions Conference. "From large metropolises, to small municipalities, to the most rural locations: cohesion policy is to all intents and purposes a territorial policy, which means that its design and development must be in the hands of local administrations."
The Pnrr model not suitable for territories
.The 'Pnrr model', or Recovery Fund, which is supposed to centralise the management of funds by making spending faster and more flexible, would provide for a national envelope, leaving the decision on how and where to spend the resources to the individual member state. A model far removed from the peculiarity of regional policy, which redistributes common resources by giving more to those who have less in order to reduce imbalances and inequalities on a European basis, based on the level of development of the territory.
A methodology that allows for the best possible optimisation of resources, destined for targeted interventions capable of bringing about real changes in the local fabric. 'The nature of these policies is to be incisive in the long term,' Tüttő continues, 'to decrease the gaps between territories In that place there, what is most needed? Of mitigating climate change? Of defence? Of renewables? Of working on demography? These are things that Brussels cannot know, Strasbourg cannot know, even national governments are often limited. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which then form the development network of a country, would be the most penalised'.
