Europäisches Parlament

The Territorial Agenda (TA) 2030 is an inter-governmental declaration with no direct legal, financial or institutional implementation instrument. The application of the Territorial Agenda 2030 relies on informal multilevel cooperation between Member States, sub-national authorities, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Investment Bank and other relevant players.

The Commission is proposing amendments to three EU regulations to ensure that EU funds can be quickly mobilised in support of post-disaster recovery. 

The amendments concern the Regulations governing the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF), and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), for the 2021-2027 programming period. 

These proposals come as a direct response to the floods affecting Central and Eastern European countries and wildfires in Portugal in September 2024 and include injecting liquidity with increased pre- and co-financing under Cohesion Policy.

Climate change is an existential threat for the European economy. Therefore, a comprehensive approach is needed. In this context, based on the empirical and data analyses related to the impact of climate change on the real economy, macroeconomic and financial stability is essential. As things currently stand, intensified natural disasters will lead to unprecedented costs that will have an unpredictable impact on public finance.

The European economy is currently on a downward trend. This will lead to lower revenue and, at the same time, higher demand for spending – mainly related to the costs of climate change, higher borrowing costs and negative trends in demographic development.

Climate change is a matter of urgency and demands a green shift in our economies. To achieve the EU's climate targets, a profound modernisation of the capital stock is needed. This entails a massive expansion of public investments. The need for an EU-level investment fund to finance the green transition is also a matter of economic strength and sustainable competitiveness. One central element of closing the financing gap is an investment friendly reform of the EU fiscal rules. While the reform process is still ongoing and is supposed to be finished by the end of this legislature, it is already clear that the fiscal space for public investments at national level will not significantly increase with the reform.

The European Council of December 2023 discussed the EU enlargement policy, including the stabilisation and association process and next steps in this respect. The enlargement policy will be one of the top priorities for the next coming years. One of the most important aspects of the enlargement process will be the cohesion policy and the structural funds.

The need for a structural policy to be applied following enlargement is justified both by the external necessity of reducing the gap between the applicant countries and the EU average and by the internal necessity of combating increasing disparities amongst and within accession countries.

According to Article 175 of the TFEU the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, every three years, on the progress towards achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion.

The 9th report which covers the first period (2021-2023) of the programming period 2021-2027 will include a record of progress made towards achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion, including the socio-economic situation of regions as well as the integration of EU priorities. It will also include, where appropriate, an indication of future EU measures and policies necessary to strengthen cohesion, as well as to deliver EU priorities.

This opinion focuses on the reform and investment measures in the Member States, in particular those based on the Country-Specific Recommendations 2023, and their implementation, in order to assess the effectiveness of these measures and the possibilities for better targeting of proposals, improved implementation and the monitoring and involvement of organised civil society in the procedures. This opinion also looks at issues concerning the ongoing reform of the EU’s economic governance rules, the central objective of which is to strengthen public debt sustainability while promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in all Member States through reforms and investment. Moreover, the opinion continues the previous consultation exercises by examining the state of the implementation of the reforms and investments provided for in the national Recovery and Resilience Plans and which are financially supported by RRF funds.

Already in 2018 the European Commission has proposed a Regulation on a mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context for the programming period 2021-2027. At the time, the EESC has adopted its opinion on 19 September 2018, and the European Parliament adopted its first-reading position on the proposal in February 2019. However, the Council's working party on structural measures decided to cease work on the proposal in May 2021. In October 2022, to break the impasse and take the lead on this issue, the EP's Committee on Regional Development started drawing up a legislative-initiative report, calling on the Commission to present a new legislative proposal. The EP voted the report at its September 2023 plenary session.

At the request of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EESC is drawing up this opinion to suggest recommendations on how to tackle inequalities, foster upwards social convergence and strengthen social security systems and ensure its long-term affordability, in an EU economic governance framework/European Semester defined around debt sustainability, productive investments and reforms. This opinion is also focusing on the implications of such a framework for the European Semester, and the further strengthening of the social pillar herein. Finally, the opinion also looks at ways of continuing to further develop fiscal instruments that have a stabilising role at the European level, based e.g. on the experience of SURE.