Challenges posed to the EU cohesion policy, according to EPRS

Last month the European Parliament Research Service issued a briefing on the issues in the forthcoming post-2020 reform, entitled “Challenges for EU cohesion policy,” which was authored by Mr. Vasilis Margaras, Policy Advisor, European Parliament.  In a nutshell, there are numerous issues facing the post-2020 EU cohesion policy reform. They cover a range of topics, such as the 2020-2026 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the impact of Brexit, economic governance and reform, flexibility with a focus on new policy challenges, performance and simplification, financial instruments and European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the urban agenda of the EU with consideration to areas with geographic specificities, alternative indicators to GDP, a stronger focus on lagging regions, and the outlook.

AER’s work on cohesion policy

We, at the Assembly of European Regions (AER), are aware of the challenges facing the EU cohesion policy and have put a strong emphasis on it. In fact, in the past year, AER has focused a big part of its efforts on the future of the EU cohesion policy. In the course of the past year, AER made two political declarations on the renewed regional policy post 2020 and the importance of regional policy. In addition, AER has held a conference on the contribution of the EU Regional Policy towards the management of future challenges. Lastly, Mr. Michiel Rijsberman, Regional Minister in the Province of Flevoland (NL), was appointed Rapporteur on the future of cohesion policy in June 2016, and is currently leading a task force on cohesion policy post-2020.

How to get involved with AER on cohesion policy?

1. You can voice your region’s interests by taking the questionnaire, whose goal is to give a comprehensive overview of the issues at stake for AER member regions regarding cohesion policy.
2. You can join the Task Force and take an active role in drafting AER’s position on the future of cohesion policy.
3. You can join us for the first meeting of the Task Force in the framework of the Committees’ Spring Plenary in London on 23 March 2017.
4. You can participate in the Bureau meeting in Lower Austria (AT)  on 1 June 2017 and join the discussions for the political declaration.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the AER Secretariat!