With the new EU Multiannual Financial Framework and New Recovery Instrument just signed off by the European Parliament (EP), following the agreement among Member States, resources to support local development and recovery in regions, cities and rural areas and to step up territorial cooperation beyond borders will shortly be made available.
The EA Group President and Cork city councillor, Kieran McCarthy welcomed the vote of the EP ratifying the Member States' agreement which will unlock 1.8 trillion euros in 7 years:
"In current times of uncertainty this is great news for local and regional authorities across the EU whose local finances have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. As of January, our cities and regions can tap into EU funding to support their development strategies and speed up economic recovery. I particularly welcome that more resources will be set aside for sustainable urban development and that new Urban Initiative will finance innovative participatory approaches building on the success of the Urban Agenda for the EU, which has been highly supported by the European Committee of the Regions."
Nanette Maupertuis, EA Group Vice President and member of the Executive Council of Corsica who was CoR rapporteur on the European Territorial Cooperation programme 2021-2027 (INTERREG) highlighted the huge potential of INTERREG to address current challenges and welcomed the fact that several CoR demands made it into the final text:
"Territorial cooperation programmes provide high EU added value as they enable people and regions to build bridges and cooperate beyond borders. I am very satisfied that our demands to ensure the continuation of INTERREG EUROPE, URBACT, programmes, as well as PEACE + between North Ireland and border regions of Ireland have been accepted by the Parliament and Council and that resources for the overall interregional strand of ETC have been increased to 491 million compared to 100 million initially foreseen. During this crisis, we have realised how important it is to guarantee smooth cooperation between LRAs across borders. I hope that additional resources which will be made available under REACT EU will finance cross border cooperation programmes, thus compensating for cuts to the overall Territorial cooperation budget. Moreover, as Corsican Regional Authority we have established close links with other island regions such as Sardinia and Baleares and I am particularly satisfied that that final agreement maintains cross border maritime cooperation programmes."
