Artikel

Grußwort OKR Katrin Hatzinger zur Veranstaltung “A More Social Europe and Cohesion Policy: A necessity for just transition”

Ladies and gentlemen,

dear guests,

I would like to warmly welcome you to our workshop on “A More Social Europe and Cohesion Policy: A necessity for just transition”. Thank you for your interest. We are happy that we serve as a side event to the European Week of Regions and Cities and would like to follow-up on the insights into the future of Cohesion Policy that the main programme has provided to us.

The discussions about the future Multiannual Financial Framework are now getting into full swing. The challenges are many and the financial resources are few; the European Union will have to make sure to remain competitive, strengthen democracy, maintain its security on the global stage, invest in defence, remain ambitious in climate action while ensuring a just transition for all citizens that will leave no one behind. And besides all of that, the interests on the NextGenerationEU loans must be repaid while the interest rates have spiked.

So, this setting would certainly already be quite enough food for discussions in itself. In recent weeks, the debates have been particularly fuelled by revelations of a draft outline of the future MFR by DG budget, which would see the EU programmes under direct management being merged into one “European Competitiveness Fund”. On the other hand, all funds under shared management – that include, notably, all funds to be found under the umbrella of today’s Cohesion Policy – would be merged into one big fund which would not be administered as today on regional level, but on national level only. If we understand the leak correctly funding would then be conditional upon the prior delivery of certain reforms and milestones by the member states in different policy sectors linked to the European Semester.

I would like to point out that the Protestant Church in Germany, like many other stakeholders in the debate around the future of Cohesion Policy, is concerned about this proposed model. EU money should be spent where it is needed most by the citizens – at the regional or even local level, in strong partnership with civil society. So, in our opinion, the principle of subsidiarity must be adhered to, and the partnership principle should be respected. Funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus should continue to be managed on the regional level – and that is, in all regions of the EU.

Civil society organisations, church institutions and other beneficiaries are doing a great job in promoting policy objectives of the European Union on the ground – whether that is the practical implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, climate action, or strengthening European democracy, to name just a few. For this, they need reliable financial support.

We are worried about the fact that as it stands, the Social Europe is hardly reflected upon in the set-up of the future European Commission. We are also worried about the diminishing focus on climate action on the EU level. We need a competitive Europe; we equally need a social Europe, and a just transition towards lower emissions that takes into account all parts of society. This is not about painting a rosy picture. It is about making the EU still work in the future, because otherwise we run the risk of losing the most important capital the EU has: the faith of its citizens in the European Union. Cohesion policy needs to address all three of these dimensions: We need investments

  • in competitiveness
  • as well as in social rights and social infrastructure,
  • and in just climate action, including investments in energy and resource efficiency.

Moreover, beneficiaries of Cohesion Policy funding, especially civil society and church organisations working on the grassroot level of EU funded projects, need a simplification of rules, including a simplification of rules concerning procurement rules and a more generous state aid regime. Together with EKD´s regional member churches being active partners in EU´s cohesion policy we would also like to see a better integration of the various funds such as the ERDF, the ESF+, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, for instance through multifund programmes. We do consider it important, though, that each of these funds remains intact as an individual fund and that they are not just simply merged into one big fund, where in practice important priorities such as social inclusion or rural development might get blurred or downsized.

I am now looking forward to an interesting, and hopefully fruitful, discussion on the future of Cohesion Policy, and I would like to hand over to Ulrike Truderung who is the policy officer in the department on EU funding policy/projects here in the EKD-office. organised today´s workshop and will be the moderator. Already a big thank you, Ulrike and now the floor is yours!