REGIOFLASH: latest news on Regional and Urban Policy

In the course if the last 15 years, rents in the EU have risen 18% while house prices rose to 48 %. Affordable homes are less and less available in recent years, especially in cities. With urbanisation set to continue, the EU must intervene if it does not want affordable housing to become even scarcer.

Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen joins EIB Group President Nadia Calviño to start laying the foundations of a pan-European investment platform for affordable and sustainable housing.

On Monday, 10 March, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, will visit France to engage with national and regional authorities on the implementation of Cohesion Policy.

Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto will visit Italy on 5 and 6 March to discuss the implementation of Cohesion Policy. His visit will focus on the upcoming mid-term review of Cohesion Policy programmes, which offers Member States and regions the opportunity to reallocate funding to address emerging priorities, such as competitiveness and housing.

On 5 March, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, became a focal point for digital innovation and transformation as four Bulgarian European Digital Innovation Hubs – benefitting from Cohesion Policy and Digital Europe Programme and recognized as operation of strategic importance – organized a public event centred on digital and green transformation.

C4T GROUNDWORK has launched a new call for technical assistance to support public authorities in implementing Cohesion Policy investments in energy, climate adaptation, water management, circular economy, and more. Applications are open until 4 April 2025.

A new map navigation is available on Kohesio to facilitate the zooming level and faster access to the projects. REGIO colleagues and managing authorities can access the professional space to edit the project description and provide additional content (social media and video links). 2021-2027 projects will be included to the Kohesio database in April. Contact: Regio-Kohesio@ec.europa.eu

The Union of Skills will support the development of our Union's human capital to strengthen EU competitiveness. A key initiative of the first 100 days of this Commission, the Union of Skills will.

In the European Parliament pleanry joint debate on European Council meetings and Security, president von der leyen said: '[...] cohesion funds. This is a possibility that we are offering to Member States. Member States will have the possibility to redirect some of their uncommitted funds to defence-related projects. This could be infrastructure, or research and development. This would be voluntary, for those who want to go the extra mile.' read the speech.

On 18 March 2025, join online the second Harnessing Talent Platform public event with the headline theme “Talent Booster Mechanism in action. First results and ways forward" which will take place in Brussels.

EVP Raffaele Fitto hosted the Youth Policy Dialogue at the A. Paradisi institute Iof Vignola, near Modena (taly). Check the video of his encounter with the students. Before that he held discussions with national government and local authorities how Cohesion Policy can address new priorities.

Watch President von der Leyen's statement to the press on the announced ReArm Europe defence package from the 4 of March.