European Parliament
As the debate on the post-2020 reform of Cohesion policy intensifies, John Bachtler has argued for the EU to make a stronger commitment to reducing territorial inequality as part of a broader focus on solidarity in the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework.
In a contribution to a debate in the European Parliament’s Regional Development Committee (Building blocks of a future EU Cohesion Policy – first reflections) on 24 January, he discussed five key questions for future Cohesion policy with respect to its contribution to EU objectives, performance, public recognition, flexibility and administrative efficiency.
John proposed reinforcing the territorial dimension of the policy to focus on inequality, stronger alignment of economic governance and Cohesion Policy (but in both directions), and strengthened but adapted ex ante conditionalities.
He also advocated more flexibility in the management of the policy by creating an EU reserve and suggested that an important element for simplifying implementation would be differentiated approach to shared management.
