[Digest] Study presentation: The Agenda for Cohesion Policy in 2019-2024: Key issues for the REGI Committee

What are the key current and emerging issues in EU cohesion policy? That was the main subject of a presentation provided by Carlos Mendez, Senior Research Fellow at the European Policies Research Centre Delft (EPRC Delft), to the Members of the European Parliament’s committee on regional development (REGI) on September 3. In his presentation, Mendez provided an overview on the conclusions of the study “The Agenda for Cohesion Policy in 2019-2024: Key issues for the REGI Committee”. The study, commissioned by the previous-REGI Committee, was conducted under the supervision of Policy-Department B for Structural and Cohesion Policies. The main purpose of this study was to provide a broad overview to incoming REGI-members on key issues and developments in EU cohesion policy, with a view to supporting the future work of the committee. In his presentation to members, dr Mendez specifically highlighted the need for a more coherent approach in EU cohesion policy, “fully-fledged partnership” agreements, as well as more simplification for beneficiaries and managing authorities. A lively debate followed, during which the members present raised a wide range of issues and questions, in particular:

• Simplification of funds, and cutting red tape and administrative obstacles for beneficiaries;
• Economic governance, notably the links between cohesion policy and the European semester, and the role of macro-economic conditionality;
• The participation of citizens in cohesion policy, including possibilities for stronger involvement through for instance approaches such as participatory budgeting;
• The lack of coherence between the different funds (ERDF, ESF+) and the potential for improving synergies;
• The position of the European Parliament and its role in the upcoming negotiations on the post-2020 cohesion package.

The Chair of the REGI-committee, Younous Omarjee, thanked both the authors of the study and the Policy Department for their excellent work. If you want to learn more about the conclusions and recommendations of the study, have a look at the block below. Presentation: Watch video of the event (with multilingual interpretation): Further reading: Research for REGI Committee: The Agenda for Cohesion Policy in 2019-2024: Key issues for the REGI Committee