Future EU budget: regions' and cities' demands at the core of the European Parliament top political groups' appeal to the European Commission

In a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Parliament's leading groups today echoed the main demands repeatedly voiced by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR): to defend cohesion and agricultural policies as core European investments, to guarantee predictable resources and shared management, and to ensure that democracy and subsidiarity remain at the centre of Europe’s financial architecture. Leading members of the CoR now urge the Commission to make major changes to the proposal in order to provide a sound basis for the negotiations.

Political groups representing a majority of members of the European Parliament echoed all the main issues raised by EU region and cites in response to the European Commission's proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF):

- they rejected any renationalisation of EU investment for agriculture and cohesion;

- they insisted on the need to provide these vital policies with predictable resources and a clear and inclusive governance;

- they acknowledged the crucial role of regions and local authorities as well as of the European Parliament; 

- they underscored the democratic risks connected of a territorially blind cash-for-reforms logic.

The CoR Presidency and leading members of the CoR express their full support for the initiative of the majority of the European Parliament's political groups and share their call for a new revised proposal to be tabled as soon as possible by the European Commission.

CoR President Kata Tüttő said: "Europe’s budget is not a collection of national envelopes. It is the expression of our shared project — of how we invest together in solidarity, competitiveness and sustainability, shared investment in each others’ futures. By recentralising power, Europe risks losing the trust and engagement of the people who make things work — mayors, regional presidents, local communities. Reducing policies to a bag of money means reducing Europe to a transaction, when what we need is transformation. We need the Commission to come forward with a proposal that keeps Europe competitive, cohesive and democratic, defending its regional heart."

CoR First Vice-President and President of Andalusia Juanma Moreno said: "The European Committee of the Regions immediately reacted to the proposal bringing together regions, cities, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, the associations of local governments. Now this unity is mobilised to avoid that the next budget undermines the partnership of trust between regions, cities, and the EU."

Sari Rautio (FI/EPP), CoR rapporteur on the future MFF and Member of the Hämeenlinna City Council, said: "We are pleased that the European Parliament supports our call to revise the Commission’s proposal on the National and Regional Partnership Plan Fund. We reiterate the regions’ call to maintain the established practice of shared management of funds, as well as the role of regions in cohesion, agricultural, and rural development policies. Regions and cities must receive legal guarantees confirming their role as key partners in the preparation, negotiation, implementation, and monitoring of National and Regional Partnership Plans. Shifting decision-making to the national level without the strong engagement of regions would run counter to the fundamental principle of subsidiarity, substantially weaken well-established multilevel governance, and directly contradict the partnership principle."