We can't take steps backwards in cohesion, the European Committee of the Regions warns in Santander

To mark the 30th anniversary of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the 40th anniversary of Spain's accession to the European Union, the Government of Cantabria is organising a seminar in Santander from 3 to 5 September on the future of cohesion policy and its transformative role in Spanish regions. Juanma Moreno, First Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions and president of Andalusia, intervened at the opening session to express his concern about the new proposal of the European Commission for the next multi-annual EU budget in which the management of cohesion funds would be centralised at national level.

The conference was attended by several members of the Spanish delegation to the European Committee of the Regions, including CoR First Vice-President Juanma Moreno and the presidents of Cantabria, María José Sáenz de Buruaga (EPP), Galicia, Alfonso Rueda Valenzuela (EPP), and Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page (PES). The four regional presidents highlighted in their opening interventions the contribution of cohesion policy to wellbeing and development in Spain and the role of the European Committee of the Regions as the voice of local and regional authorities in Europe: a voice that needs to be heard now when planning the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework. 

"Convergence between rich and poor regions strengthens competitiveness, reduces regional disparities, and fosters sustainable and inclusive growth. Everyone has recognised the need for a serious cohesion policy, but the European Commission is proposing a multiannual budget that puts much of what has been achieved at risk. Merging all the funds in a single national plan and centralising the distribution in the Member States can result in abandoning the needs of the territories, "said First Vice-President Moreno. 

"Now more than ever the regions have to work to address this new design of the EU budget, so as not to lose the voice we have today in the management of the European funds of our regions and avoid taking steps backwards in cohesion. I am confident that the work we will do together will bear fruit and that both the Commission and the European Council, as well as the European Parliament, will listen to the regions," concluded the President of Andalusia.