The President of the European Committee of the Regions, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, alarmed about cohesion policies, writes to the European Commission

Brussels – A warning message about the future development of the European Union: This is the signal issued today (June 17) by the European Committee of the Regions (COR) and its chairman, Vasco Alves Cordeiro. In a letter written and addressed directly to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the European institution representing local governments, expressed its doubts about the future of European cohesion policies.

Of concern to the European Committee of the Regions are reports regarding a possible transformation of the cohesion policy along the lines of the Recovery plan, with a centralisation in the management of funds. Alves Cordeiro highlighted some of the critical points that this reform would bring: the allocation of money only for developing areas, the elimination of the figure of the commissioner in charge of cohesion policy, and above all, the risk of reducing cohesion policy to a mere tool serving limited priorities such as economic recovery or economic convergence.

President Vasco Alves Cordeiro expressed his alarm and called on the Commission to clarify its position: “A reform of cohesion policy that undermines and weakens its fundamental principles will have a negative impact on the single market, the EU economy, and ultimately on democracy and the European project as a whole.”