COTER unanimously approve Maupertuis proposals for new design and delivery mechanisms for next MFF

On 17 September, the COTER commission unanimously adopted at its external meeting in Oulu, Finland some key opinions calling for a stronger EU Cohesion Policy in the next multiannual budget post-2027 and to simplify the management of the funds at the local level.

Following the adoption of recommendations on the reform of cohesion policy drafted by the CoR President Vasco Alves Cordeiro and the COTER chair Emil Boc who stressed the Cohesion Policy must remain managed bottom-up and built on the strengths of each region, COTER members backed the opinion of the EA member and President of the Assembly of Corsica, Nanette Maupertuis on EU budget and place-based policies for new design and delivery mechanisms in the MFF post 2027.

Ms Maupetuis in her opinion argues for a more strategic budget that is based upon and clearly linked to EU priorities and objectives and for the need to address the current fragmentation of funding to maximise the impact of budget on the ground and make it easier for regions and cities to get access to EU funding. She has also emphasized the need to operationalise the concept of the “Do no harm to Cohesion” principle.

“In order to address the multiple challenges EU faces, while strengthening cohesion across all the territories, we need a more strategic, simplified and agile multi-annual budget. A greater involvement of regions and cities in shaping and implementing development strategies is crucial in order to maximize the impact of the budget on the ground, in line with the principle of active subsidiarity, multilevel governance and better regulation, said EA rapporteur Nanette Maupertuis