‘The demands are increasing, but if we keep innovating and modernising, we will realise the promise of a more equal union,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told participants in her opening speech.
The Cohesion Forum, held every three years, brings together leaders of European institutions, governments and regions, economic and social partners, NGOs and academics to discuss the challenges facing, and achievements of, one of Europe’s most important and visible policies. The event follows the publication of the 9th Cohesion Report, which assessed the state of cohesion in the EU.
The cohesion engine
The forum took place against the backdrop of the 20th anniversary of the EU’s biggest enlargement in 2004, when 10 countries joined. Many speakers also paid tribute to former European Commission president Jacques Delors, who died in December 2023.
Enrico Letta, Former Italian prime minister and the current president of the Jacques Delors Institute, quoted Delors telling him: ‘The single market was a success since 1985, only because we had a successful cohesion policy. It’s not by chance that cohesion policy was launched at the same time as the single market. Without convergence, the single market can be a problem in future.’
Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, said cohesion policy helped weaker Member States make the most of their assets in a competitive single market, ensuring balanced growth and development of the EU.
‘The EU is a convergence machine, with cohesion policy at its engine,’ she said.
An antidote to the poison of discontent
The EU, Enrico Letta said, was in the most complicated period of its existence, facing enlargement, the green and digital transitions, migration and an ageing population. Geopolitical changes and threat to the EU’s security on its eastern borders was another concern. New ways had to be found to finance solutions to these challenges.
One danger to the EU’s unity was regions in development traps. One-third of the EU’s population lived in places that were slowly falling behind. Poorer prospects for citizens, brain drain, and prolonged stagnation would lead to what Commissioner Ferreira called the ‘poison of political discontent’, or increasing anti-EU sentiment.
The antidote, she said, was better cooperation with local partners. They needed to be more involved in deciding use of cohesion funding, and local institutions had to be given technical support to improve their capacity to deliver and manage projects that improved people’s lives. Many speakers called for less bureaucracy — without neglecting responsible budget management — to encourage beneficiaries who could otherwise be scared off from applying for funding by complicated procedures and rules.
Territorialisation and centralisation
Speakers of the various panel sessions were united in calling for less centralisation, shared management and more decision-making powers for local and regional authorities in how cohesion funding is used. Local players were best placed to determine their development needs.
‘There is no future of cohesion policy without a strong role of cities and regions. If you try to replace cohesion policy with a centralised instrument as top down as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), you will destroy the essence of the cohesion policy,’ said Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
One solution could be for regions and municipalities to have an envelope of funding, to be invested in line with a local development strategy, said Jānis Rozenbergs, Mayor of Cēsis, Latvia.
Cohesion policy meant meeting needs and creating services that would create pride of belonging and give people the freedom to stay, said Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. People needed to feel that there was political engagement to provide a future for them where they lived.
The quality of local institutions was vital to make this happen, said Simona Iammarino, University of Cagliari, Italy. Better institutional capacity meant staffing public services with young, capable people aware of the challenges of the green and digital transitions. This required rethinking education and skills development.
Not a firefighter
Simplification, flexibility, multi-level governance and more funding: these were the central messages about the future of cohesion policy during the forum’s final discussion.
While cohesion policy should remain flexible enough to respond to large-scale emergencies, its main role was not to be a firefighter, Andrés Rodríguez Pose, chair of the high-level group on the future of cohesion policy. The RRF was the right tool for that job.
However, in today’s world, crises had become the norm. Cohesion should ensure that emergencies did not happen, or that when they did, that the effects were not as severe, he said.
Teodora Preoteasa, State Secretary in Romania’s Ministry of Investments and European Projects, said that while cohesion policy had a proven capacity to respond to crises, its core purpose should not be forgotten: a long-term investment to reduce disparities and ensure fair access to, and participation in, the single market. Cohesion policy had to adapt to specific needs — without losing its long-term development perspective.
Reaching across the aisle
Cohesion policy needs regulatory stability. Post 2027, a clear framework was needed for managing authorities, beneficiaries and auditors, said Vasco Alves Cordeiro, President of the European Committee of the Regions.
To ensure the policy continued to play a central role in the development of the EU, support had to be mobilised and its benefits communicated to its detractors by ‘reaching across the aisle’ to explain and debate its strengths and weaknesses, he said. In the run-up to the European elections, political parties and candidates needed to support cohesion policy as the most effective tool for a more effective, dynamic EU.
In her closing speech, Commissioner Ferreira said the policy had to be reinforced to meet new challenges. The tangible benefits it had produced in sectors like education, healthcare and employment needed to be communicated widely, where people lived, to ensure it remained a symbol of solidarity.
‘The EU is a convergence machine, with cohesion policy at its engine,’
