(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, JUN 28 - The policy of social, economic
and territorial cohesion is the EU's most important investment
policy.
With the EU enlargements of the early 2000s to countries of
central and eastern Europe, the main aim was to achieve real
economic convergence.
This process was interrupted by the 2008 financial crisis that
led to a rapid
increase in disparities, especially on the labour market.
Many European regions have not returned to pre-crisis levels
since then, falling into what the eighth Cohesion Report of the
European Commission called the development trap.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war in
Ukraine, what is the future of Cohesion Policy?
The latest edition of TerritoriALL, the magazine published by
the ESPON research programme specialising in regional-policy
analysis, plays host to a debate on this issue, which is at the
top of the priorities of the French presidency of the European
Council.
"This debate is not technical," said Nathalie Sarrabezolles,
Chairwoman of the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and
EU Budget (COTER) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR)
and rapporteur of the report.
"It is highly political because it touches on many of the
challenges in Europe in troubled times".
She said these range from the fight against climate change to
the digital transition, reducing the rural-urban divide and
strengthening the resilience of cities and regions.
Peter Berkowitz of the Directorate-General for Regional and
Urban Policy of the European Commission was on the same
wavelength.
He said the main challenge for Cohesion policy will be to adapt
to "long-term structural challenges" such as convergence and
climate change, while "strengthening its capacity to respond to
new asymmetric shocks" such as the pandemic and the war of
aggression in Ukraine.
Annabelle Boutet, an official from the French National Agency
for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT), highlighted the need to focus
on the regions that have fallen into the development trap.
She said that in many cases these territories have the resources
and assets to achieve the goals of the Green, digital, economic
and demographic transition.
Francesco Molica, Director for Regional Policy for the
Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), also addressed
the issue of asymmetric shocks.
He said the central question was whether cohesion policy should
"incorporate an emergency response feature on a permanent basis
in the future and if this can be done without harming its very
rationale and principles".
On one hand, Molica stressed the need to adopt "more targetted
approaches and bottom-up decision making" to address territorial
disparities and the so-called "geography of discontent".
On the other, he said it was necessary to reflect on how to
"prevent fragmentation across the various funds" in view of the
increase in the number of instruments contributing to cohesion
goals under the Multiannual Financial Framework for the period
2021-2027. (ANSA).
EU cohesion policy 'must adapt to structural challenges'
ESPON magazine focuses on debate on future of investment policy