The consequences of the ongoing climate emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's war against Ukraine and the current record inflation rates triggered by increased food and energy prices make the strengthening cohesion as a fundamental value of the European Union more pressing than ever.
For this reason, the partners of the #CohesionAlliance – the EU-wide coalition of 12,000 signatories advocating for a stronger cohesion policy - gathered in Brussels during the 20th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities to reaffirm their commitment to reinforce cohesion policy and increase the territorial impact of all EU investments in order to make them fit for Europe's long-term challenges.
Through a joint declaration signed today, in the presence of the EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, and the Chair of the European Parliament's committee for regional development, Younous Omarjee, the European Committee of the Regions together with the leading European associations of cities and regions together shared the common will to keep cohesion policy as:
- the EU's most important investment policy;
- the EU's most visible instrument at local and regional level;
- a long-term development policy based on principles of shared management, partnership and multilevel governance;
- a policy that follows a place-based approach and addresses the territorial diversity of the Union;
- a key tool to supports territorial cooperation and promote solidarity and integration.
"Let us remind all EU and national decision-makers of the indispensable role that Cohesion policy plays in the European integration process!" states the declaration, with which the #CohesionAlliance wants to start a forward-looking work to make cohesion policy stronger, simpler, more effective and result-oriented now and in the future. The Alliance also calls to ensure that cohesion remains an overall value for the European Union by ensuring that all relevant EU policies contribute to reduce disparities among and within Member States.
Emil Boc, Chair of the CoR's commission for Territorial cohesion policy and budget (COTER) and Mayor of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) said "Cohesion policy has been effective in addressing the Covid-19 and Ukrainian crises by for example making funding available and allowing higher co-financing rates. However, regional disparities remain high and some are even growing. Particularly unemployment rates in less developed regions remain far above those in more developed regions. The regional innovation divide in Europe has grown. More coordination and coherence between the various EU policies is needed to promote the wellbeing of people and to address the growing disparities. We need a better multi-level governance and effective decentralization to ensure that the local and regional levels have the necessary capacities to manage the change, to provide citizens with the trust that they will have a fair chance to reap the benefits of the digital and green transformation.
He concluded by saying: "Cohesion policy brings jobs and growth in every corner of Europe and is a key policy for the future of Europe. The future of our democracy in Europe is directly influenced and connected with the future of Cohesion policy! The Cohesion Alliance is an alliance for the democratic future of Europe and should be supported by all!
Sari Rautio, Chair of Häme health care district said "Cohesion is the heart of EU. By working together we can modernise it and in response to challenges make a flexible and stronger Cohesion policy.
The #CohesionAlliance is a coalition of those who believe that EU cohesion policy must continue to be a pillar of the EU's future. To raise awareness about the vital role of cohesion policy, the #CohesionAlliance was initially launched by leading associations of regions and cities - the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE), the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) and Eurocities - and the European Committee of the Regions in October 2017. Since its launch, the Alliance's declaration has been signed by more than 12 000 individual signatories, 140 regions, 137 cities and counties, 50 associations of regional and local governments, 40 Members of the European Parliament and 35 EU sectoral associations. Anyone who believes in EU cohesion policy is welcome to join the #CohesionAlliance.