​On 29 September the CoR COTER commission met in Brussels for the first time after summer and elected Emil Boc, Romania, as new Chair of the commission till the end of the mandate.

Members of the commission approved by huge majority the draft opinion of Nanette Maupertuis, President of the Corsican assembly and EA Group Vicepresident on " Enhancing cohesion policy support for regions with geographic and demographic handicaps", ie. territories covered by art.174 TFEU, such as islands, mountain and rural areas.

Article 174 TFEU instructs the European Union and its Member States to ensure that the objective of territorial cohesion of the Union is specifically implemented in those regions.

“In fact, the application of this article is not satisfactory, says Ms Maupertuis while presenting her opinion. Very often, the needs of these regions are taken into account at the final stage of the policy-making process, rather than at the outset  

Moreover, many EU funds with a territorial dimension are mostly programmed in isolation. What we need is a truly integrated approach to all these interventions, "geographically" targeted measures with specific budget allocation. Territorial Cohesion is not just Cohesion Policy, also all other policies should do no harm to cohesion, she added.

During the day members also discussed the opinion on Just Transition in coal and energy intensive regions, outermost regions and held debates on the Impact of the Russian war in Ukraine on accessible and affordable housing in the EU and on the EU mission on climate neutral cities.

On the eve of the meeting, Ms Maupertuis also met the President of the REGI committee in the European Parliament, Younous Omarjee, MEP Pascal Arimont and Tonino Picula who is also President of the EP SEARICA intergroup.