The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has unanimously adopted its opinion on the proposed National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPP) Fund Regulation, with Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, serving as Co-Rapporteur. The opinion calls for legally binding safeguards to protect cohesion policy for all regions, introduces a new subsidiarity clause, strengthens multilevel governance assessments, and demands mandatory regional/territorial chapters in national plans. The CoR also proposes restoring ring-fenced cohesion allocations, reducing the flexibility reserve from 25% to 10%, reintroducing territorial just transition strategies, and reinforcing place-based innovation and smart specialisation as key drivers of competitiveness and resilience.
The opinion represents a strong political response to concerns that the future EU budget architecture could centralise decision-making excessively at national level and weaken the territorial dimension of EU investment policies. The rapporteurs stressed that cohesion policy must remain a distinct EU policy supporting all regions — less developed, transition and more developed alike — while respecting the principles of partnership, subsidiarity and shared management.
A central proposal in the opinion is the introduction of legally binding multilevel governance assessments, which would require Member States to demonstrate that local and regional authorities were genuinely involved in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs). In cases where regions and cities are excluded or where plans become excessively centralised, the opinion proposes a new subsidiarity clause allowing local and regional authorities to formally notify the European Commission, which could reject the plans until the shortcomings are addressed.
The adopted opinion further calls for mandatory regional/territorial chapters within NRPPs, direct interaction between regional managing authorities and the European Commission, and stronger territorial guarantees for integrated local development, including a proposed minimum allocation of 20% for territorial development tools. It also seeks to strengthen the role of regional authorities in setting milestones, targets, monitoring systems and payment applications linked to EU funding.
Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca and Co-Rapporteur of the opinion, said: “Europe must choose whether it is preparing for unity or for division. Cohesion policy cannot become collateral damage inside national mega-funds, nor can farmers and regions be pushed into competition for the same resources. Cohesion must remain a policy for all regions — less developed, transition and more developed alike. Partnership, multilevel governance and subsidiarity are not bureaucratic formalities; they are the DNA of European solidarity. Words such as regional chapters and territorial checks must now become real legal guarantees. A Union that does not invest in cohesion is not preparing for its future — it is preparing for its own division.”
The adopted text will now feed into the ongoing legislative discussions on the EU’s post-2027 budgetary and investment framework.
