EESC President

On 29 September, EESC President Oliver Röpke visited Murcia where he attended, an informal ministerial meeting on general affairs, alongside the President of the Committee of the Regions, Vasco Cordeiro, and Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, to discuss the future of cohesion policy.

Organised by the Spanish Presidency of the EU, the meeting brought together prominent participants including President of the European Parliament's Regional Development Committee, Younous Omarjee as well as national Ministers responsible for cohesion policy.

During the meeting President Röpke presented the EESC's views on the cohesion policy after 2027, based on the findings of the exploratory opinion on "The Recovery and Resilience Facility and Cohesion policy: Towards Cohesion policy 2.0", prepared upon request of the Spanish Presidency.

Together with the President of the Committee of the Regions, Vasco Cordeiro, President Röpke reiterated a joined message: no one and no region should be left behind in the post-2027 cohesion policy. President Röpke also emphasised that civil society should play a central role and contribute to the negotiations on the future policy, a topic which he had already discussed with Commissioner Ferreira during their meeting on 6 September.

Watch the doorstep of President Röpke here.