​On 8-9 September a delegation of CoR members are participating in the Cohesion Forum, a major event attended by prominent representatives of European, national and local governments and experts.
 
The debate is expected to focus on the new Cohesion Policy programming period and on ways the reformed policy can support economic growth and job creation while closely linking in with the EU 2020 Strategy and the European Semester.
 
The forum comes at the right time, just after the publication of the 6th cohesion report which has reported that the disparities between richer and poorer regions have increased after the crisis and the process of convergence has reversed.
 
The EA member, Mr Stanislaw Szwabski, CoR rapporteur on the European Code of Conduct on Partnership reiterates the vital importance of the new cohesion policy for reviving economic growth. Without cohesion policy which provides the major source of financing for local and regional governments, the crisis would hit harder, he adds. In order to make sure the money is spent wisely thus reflecting the need of the regions, there needs to be an improvement in the application of the partnership principle and multilevel governance to involve local and regional authorities at all stages of the programming.