Resistance rallies against EU’s €392 billion regional funding overhaul

Fourteen countries have teamed up to defend a "distinct and robust" pot of EU cash for regional development, just as the European Commission prepares to unveil its proposal for the next long-term budget.

In a non-paper seen by Euractiv, the group – made up of Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia – calls for cohesion funding to remain a separate pot and not to merge it into a potential 'megafund'.

The group joins a growing chorus of opponents of a planned root-and-branch overhaul of the way the EU's €392 billion cohesion fund is structured and disbursed, following a letter raising similar concerns by 149 regional governments last month.

"When 14 national governments, 149 regions and hundreds of local leaders and key players share deep concerns for the very logic behind the shaping of the proposal for new EU budget – it is time to start a meaningful conversation," said Kata Tüttő, the president of the EU's Committee of the Regions, an assembly of local and regional government representatives.

The Commission will present its proposed overhaul of its next seven-year budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) on 16 July.

The countries, many of which are among the largest recipient of those funds, insist the next MFF must preserve a region-based allocation model that reflects differing development levels across the bloc.

Critics have previously argued that doing away with a stand-alone cohesion fund would weaken one of the EU's most powerful tools for balancing disparities between regions, and could undermine its core political project.

Neither France or Germany, the two largest contributors to the EU budget, are among the signatories. Germany supports the Commission's reform plans.

The Commission wants national authorities to be more involved in administering EU cash, at the expense of regional bodies, and could set funding levels based on national rather than regional GDP.

The group refers back to a similar February statement signed by sixteen countries, though this time, the line-up has shifted: Estonia, Cyprus, and Malta are no longer on board, while Poland has joined.