Council of the European Union on cohesion creates good basis

Cohesion policy reached its maturity and will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. By stepping into new age, it needs ‘new clothes’ in order to better respond to a changing environment.

Yesterday at the General Affairs Council, Commissioner Creţu spoke about the importance of cohesion policy and the need of its modernisation.

In the coming programming period we may expect a more flexible and tailored approach, which will better respondsto specific regional needs. To asses these needs, new indicators will be needed, which will mirror the specific characteristic of each region. The performance of the regions will be taken into account while deciding upon the allocation of funds.

Main themes of the future cohesion policy seem to be innovation, smart specialisation and support to industrial regions in transition.

Cohesion policy is a pillar for all European projects but often neglected and forgotten by the EU citizens and policy-makers in sense of sensibilisation and visibility. There is no doubt Europe needs cohesion policy and there is no doubt that the positive effects of the EU funds and investments must be better communicated to the citizen.

Last year, the EU ministers agreed on strengthening the communication and visibility on benefits for all of us.

Long before plans of seven joint communication actions for cohesion policy were presented by Commissioners Corina Creţu and Marianne Thyssen he was advocating for better communication on cohesion policy results. Already in 2016, together with nine EPP-colleagues from the European Parliament,  he published the book ‘Let the stars shine’. There he presents the projects realised with a financial support of the EU funds. On June 19th there will be a big opening of the exhibition in  where 41 projects from across Europe will be presented.