Secretary General on cohesion policy after 2020 and opportunities for handcraft and SMEs

Secretary General Jiri Burianek spoke at an event of the Bavarian Representation for the European Union on the topic "Cohesion Policy after 2020: Prospects and opportunities". He first highlighted the achievements of the Cohesion Alliance, an initiative of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) consisting in ensuring that all regions continue to profit from cohesion policy and the regional 3 layer approach (more developed, transition, and less developed regions). Equally the successful stands of the CoR for simplification was highly appreciated by the Small and Medium Sized Entreprises (SMEs). Mr Burianek also pointed out that the overall discussion has to be seen on the larger context of creating large European infrastructure containing the strands of digital, transport and energy. Within this context the SMEs (Mittelstand) play a key role on the way towards Connecting Europe Facility 2.0, i.e. a Connecting Europe Facilitywhich contains also the necessary local and regional ramifications. All participants agreed in this context that within this logic, regional development plans uniting public and private investment on the one hand and synergies between the central( federal) regional and local levels on the other are a key formula for success.