Magazine
New regional focus magazine
By EUobserver
It is October 2013 and the eve of a new long term budget cycle for the European Union. The past years have been marked by record unemployment and stagnant growth. The dominant EU theme has been budget-slashing and doing more with fewer resources.
This has heavily affected Cohesion Policy for 2014 to 2020. The Cohesion pot is €22 billion smaller compared to the current budget cycle. How the future money - €325 billion - will be spent is also changing.
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Regions commissioner Johannes Hahn tells these pages that projects which do not match his new criteria are “no longer … acceptable.”
Regional authorities must keep in mind the EU's long term economic goals and risk of being punished if central governments fall foul of EU budget rules. One academic said there is no more “business as usual.”
And so regional delegates have much to talk about as they meet for this year’s Open Days in Brussels.
This magazine looks at the new spending rules in an interview with Hahn. It examines the changes to the Cohesion policy and highlights some past successes and failures of EU regional spending.
Distribution
EUobserver Magazine, Rue Montoyer 18B, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Meg Chang, mc@euobs.com.
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A PDF copy of the magazine can be downloaded here for free (30 MB).