Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)
European section of United Cities and Local Governments


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Cohesion policy


Introduction

The European Union’s cohesion policy, also called regional policy, is an investment policy. It provides financial support to EU regions and aims to invest in local and regional development, as well as to reduce important economic, social and territorial disparities between territories. It supports many projects in different fields: research and innovation, support to small and medium sized companies, new technologies or social inclusion, among others. With a budget of 325 billion euros for the 2014-2020 period, it represents approximately a third of the budget of the EU.

In light of this, CEMR gives special attention to several key elements that guarantee the cohesion policy works well, and delivers the expected results in the current (2014-2020) and future programming period.

Expert group on territorial cohesion

47 national associations of local and regional governments from all the European Union are members of this expert group. In this expert group, we address different crucial goals for local and regional governments:

Our goals:
 
  • Organising regular meetings with the European institutions: European Commission, European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, Presidency of the EU;
  • Guaranteeing the respect of the partnership principle and the implication of towns and regions in all the steps of the policy-making cycle;
  • Ensuring the combined use of several European funds to set up integrated territorial strategies: regional, social, rural, maritime and cohesion strategies;
  • Discussing cohesion policy simplification measures, in terms of structure, control, audit and state aid;
  • Preparing the future of the cohesion policy, after 2020.

These goals are materialised by the implementation of a range of activities that include developing political positions, studies, and ongoing dialogue between the members and other key partners.

Coordinator of the expert group: Serafin Pazós-Vidal, COSLA – Head of Brussels Office.


CEMR spokespersons for rural development

• Mayor of Ciortești (Moldavia), Alina Apostol
• Mayor of Kaltenleutgeben (Austria), Bernadette Geieregger


CEMR spokespersons for urban development

• Councillor of Toscana Region (Italy), Ilaria Bugetti
• Mayor of Soria (Spain), Carlos M. Minguez
 

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