“[We need to] accelerate the implementation of the current programs,” Fitto said in a speech in Krakow, Poland on Thursday. Since taking office in December he has been touring EU capitals to negotiate midterm changes to their cohesion plans, due before March 31.
“[The midterm review] is a golden opportunity to ensure that funding is absorbed more rapidly, to take the next step in adapting the policy to emerging needs.” Fitto added.
But Brussels’ offer of greater flexibility comes with strings attached. According to the EU’s freshly published Competitiveness Compass — which contains several proposals to reboot the bloc’s economy — countries are now being offered the possibility to channel more of the regional funding they receive into strategic sectors.
In practice, this change would allow big businesses to take advantage of more cohesion funds for project funding, according to an EU diplomat. This was not allowed under the previous rules, which were designed to favor small and medium-sized enterprises with local roots.
However, the tweak is welcome relief for hard-up governments seeking to mobilize additional defense spending in the years to come.
While cohesion cash can’t fund weapons purchases, it can finance auxiliary goods such as drones and border infrastructure that have both military and civilian uses.
“Security is one of those many important European challenges,” said Céline Gauer, a high-ranking official who leads the Commission task force in charge of the post-Covid recovery fund.
“Does cohesion policy belong to the answer? I think it really does.”
