The Conference of Peripheral Maritime (CPMR) says it welcomes the political agreement reached by the European Parliament and the EU Council on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. The deal marks a decisive step towards providing the regions with adequate and timely means to deliver the recovery in this uncertain moment.
The agreement foresees to reinforce the envelopes of programmes with an EU added value such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus, which sends a strong signal, including for future budgetary negotiations. However, the CPMR regrets that the list of programmes receiving additional funding has shrunk compared to the initial demands of the European Parliament, leaving out the Just Transition Fund (JTF) and the Connecting Europe Facility, both of which relate to EU priority areas and have a strong territorial dimension. Such an outcome will make it more challenging for the EU to realise its ambitions, particularly with regard to climate change and energy transition, due to the cuts on the JTF.
The European Parliament has achieved the concession to be involved in the implementation of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) package, a positive step in terms of the democratic accountability of the instrument. The CPMR congratulates the Parliament and the Council for the agreement reached.
Cees Loggen, President of the CPMR and Regional Minister of Noord-Holland applauded the Parliament’s successful efforts to include new own resources on climate in the MFF. “We call on the European Parliament to use its power to ensure that regions are adequately involved in the implementation of NGEU so that the investments are delivered in a territorially balanced way” he added.
Eleni Marianou, Secretary General of the CPMR said: “The CPMR is confident that the process of approving the MFF could be comfortably finished by the end of the year, but we call on Members States to launch the national ratification process of the own resources decision as soon as possible to avoid delays in the deployment of the MFF and NGEU that would significantly hurt the regions’ path to recovery”.
