During the Committee of the Regions' plenary debate on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), members of the European Alliance Group stressed that the next EU budget must preserve cohesion as a core principle and guarantee a meaningful role for regions in its implementation.
The debate took place with European Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin, who briefly presented the Commission’s approach to the next EU budgetary framework and the proposed National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs).
Opening the debate for the European Alliance Group, President Nanette Maupertuis emphasised that the future MFF is more than just a financial instrument.
“The next EU budget and the National and Regional Partnership Plans are not simply a budgetary mechanism. They represent a political choice that must ensure a stronger, more predictable and fairer Europe,” she said.
Maupertuis stressed that cohesion must remain a fundamental principle of the EU budget, alongside priorities such as defence and security.
While acknowledging that the proposed National and Regional Partnership Plans could offer opportunities to simplify the implementation of EU funding, she stressed that this can only happen if three essential conditions are met:
- a genuine role for regions from the beginning of the planning process
- clear pre-allocations of funding
- compulsory territorial impact assessments
President Maupertuis also called for a stronger recognition of the specific challenges faced by island regions in the final text of the regulation.
“We are not asking for a favour, but for recognition of permanent structural handicaps. This is about competitiveness, solidarity and, ultimately, sovereignty,” Maupertuis stated.
During the same debate, our member Liesa Scholzen (member of the Belgian Senate and the parliament of Belgium's German-speaking community) stressed that the Commission’s proposal represents a significant change in the way the EU budget would be implemented.
Referring to the assessment by the European Court of Auditors, she warned that moving to a single National and Regional Partnership Plan per Member State risks weakening the institutional role of regions.
According to Scholzen, this concern goes beyond technical budgetary arrangements.
“This is not a technical detail. It is a central question of governance,” she said, stressing that effective regional participation is essential to ensure that EU investments respond to territorial realities across Europe.