Brussels – Structural funds to continue for the next seven years: the Council of the EU has reached a partial agreement on the new multiannual financial framework (MFF 2028–2034), approving the establishment of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which includes European territorial cooperation (Interreg), the Cohesion Fund (CF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). The provisional nature of the agreement lies in the absence of funding allocations, which will be negotiated in a second phase; in the meantime, however, work is beginning on shaping the framework of the next Cohesion Policy.
The political agreement reached between the Member States provides for the use of the ERDF and CF to support and complement national and regional partnership plans under shared management. As regards the ESF, however, the agreement on the proposed regulation sets out the conditions for implementing EU support for employment, skills, and social inclusion of high quality for the period 2028 to 2034, complementing the regulation on partnership plans. The scope of this specific Structural Fund has thus been outlined.
The agreement reached within the Council of the EU allows this sensitive issue to move forward. The Structural Funds are central to the European Commission’s draft seven-year budget, complementing and supporting the national and regional partnership plans (NRPs), all of which are new elements requiring the financial support provided by the funding instruments approved today (29 June). The European Commission’s proposal has therefore received another political green light, following the approval of the partnership plans, which came ten days ago.
The partial agreement, which paves the way for institutional dialogue with the European Parliament, “marks another important step towards a simpler cohesion policy, more flexible and better equipped to respond to Europe’s evolving challenges,” says Makis Keravnos, Cyprus’s Minister of Finance, whose government currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
