General Affairs Council on cohesion, 12/04/2018, 12 April 2018

Main results

Future of the cohesion policy

The Council discussed the future of cohesion policy after 2020.

Ministers focused on a number of key political issues including the following:

• The priorities for cohesion policy over the next programming period
• The type of regions to be covered, categories of regions and co-financing rates
• Ways of making cohesion policy more effective and of speeding up its implementation

The debate will feed into the Commission's preparations for its proposals on the legislative package for cohesion policy post-2020. 

The debate on cohesion policy post 2020 is an essential part of the general debate about the future of Europe. Establishing the link between the two is very important – we cannot decide how to allocate money for cohesion without first having defined our priorities - without having envisaged the sort of Europe we want to have in ten years time or, perhaps even the Europe we want for our children and their children. Tomislav Donchev, Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Communication of cohesion policy

The Commission briefed the Council about activities which have been undertaken recently to strengthen communication on the achievements and benefits of cohesion policy.

Last year member states voiced their support to stepping up communication on cohesion policy as part of the efforts to bring the EU closer to the citizens. The Commission proposed a number of  initiatives, to be taken forward jointly by the Commission, the member states and other stakeholders, in order to raise awareness of the benefits of cohesion policy for the lives of citizens. These included:

• Launching a cohesion alliance as a grassroots initiative in support of cohesion policy
• Photo exhibitions highlighting the achievements of cohesion policy
• Debates on the future of cohesion policy at regional and local level

Over recent months there has been steady progress in implementing these various initiatives.

• Council conclusions on making cohesion policy more effective, relevant and visible (25 April 2017)

Implementation of cohesion policy after 2020

The Council adopted without discussion conclusions on the delivery and implementation of cohesion policy post-2020.

The conclusions call for simpler rules at EU and national level, greater responsibility for the member states in the implementation process, and early preparation of the new programmes in order to ensure a smooth transition to the next programming period.

• Council conclusions on delivery and implementation of cohesion policy after 2020 (press release, 12/4/2018)