During the opening session of the European Week of Regions and Cities in the presence of Commissioner Cretu and European Parliament Vice President Valcarsel Siso, the President of the EA Group and Gdynia city councillor, Stanisław Szwabski called upon the European Commission to place particular attention to smaller cities and regions in cohesion policy.
"Notwithstanding the importance of financial instruments to leverage private capital and ensuring synergies of different sources of funding, we see a risk of EFSI and financial instruments replacing cohesion policy, instead of complementing it, Mr Szwabski said ".
Smaller cities, poorer and geographically challenged regions depend on EU aid and we call upon you to ensure those areas keep receiving adequate support and are not forgotten in the name of market driven financial instruments.
Cohesion policy not only is the main EU investment tool, it is probably the most successful policy when it comes to showing to citizens the benefit about being part of the EU.
Let us not forget that disaffection with the EU is stronger outside major urban agglomerations. Let us not overlook that we have an obligation to pursue economic territorial and social cohesion and balanced development across all EU regions and cities he concluded.
