John Bachtler was an invited speaker at the Conference on ‘The role of Cohesion policy in delivering EU priorities’ organised jointly by the Committee of Peripheral & Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the European Commission’s DG for Regional and Urban Policy on 13 October 2016 at the EC Conference Centre in Brussels.
Using concrete examples presented by CPMR member regions, the conference aimed to demonstrate the role of Cohesion policy in delivering EU priorities, improving investment conditions and achieving territorial, economic and social cohesion. John’s presentation was on the contribution of Cohesion Policy to improving investment conditions for jobs and growth, with an assessment of the main elements of the 2013 reform of Cohesion policy and with a particular focus on the effectiveness of ex ante conditionalities.
The CPMR’s summary of the conference highlighted three main messages.
- First, Cohesion policy is delivering EU priorities and that it needs to be modernised. The need to ensure that the discourse is realistic, the narrative suitable and in line with the EU Treaty were stressed.
- Second, the link between Cohesion policy and the European Semester should be more seen as an interaction between the two rather than support form Cohesion policy to the European semester. The idea of reinforcing the territorial dimension of the European semester was mentioned as a way forward.
- Third, ex ante conditionalities could be one of the major lifelines of Cohesion Policy when it comes to renewing it for the post-2020 period.
