EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024
Making sure EU billions keep flowing to Europe's poorest areas will occupy the European Parliament's committee on regional development (REGI) for the next five years.
"The two biggest files our committee is going to deal with are the new multi-annual financial framework and the legislative package for cohesion policy beyond 2027," said REGI chairman Adrian-Dragoş Benea.
The EU must keep on "bringing consistent and efficient support to the poorest regions and people and fostering social and economic convergence," the Romanian centre-left MEP said.
His 41-member committee is in charge of overseeing some €60bn a year in EU spending, amounting to about one-third of the bloc's budget.
Since the last big wave of EU enlargement in 2004, its "cohesion" policy has seen some transfer of wealth from Europe's northern and western treasuries to deprived parts of central and eastern Europe.
But Luxembourg, for instance, still remained by far the richest region in terms of GDP per capita, at 257 percent of the EU average, 20 years later.
The poorest regions remained far away in the EU's eastern and southern fringe, including Greece and southern Italy and Spain, according to EU statistics.
"Although cohesion policy brought many positive changes over the whole EU territory, several disparities remain and many challenges need to be tackled," said Benea.
He listed the green and digital transitions, housing, climate change, migration, competitiveness, demographic challenges, and economic stagnation, and future enlargement among important areas on Regi's 2024-2029 agenda.
The 48-year-old socialist used to be a local politician in Bacău, a town near Romania's border with Moldova, which is Europe's poorest country and which started EU accession talks in June.
And he promised to "lead a fierce battle" if need be, to secure an "ambitious [EU] budget post 2027,” and to protect "the DNA of cohesion policy".
The policy’s purpose was “to bring some relief to the population”, via “structural” and “long-term” investments, he said.
It ought to “enable true economic, social, and territorial convergence,” he added, but the “complexity of implementation on the ground” sometimes caused setbacks.
Meanwhile, EU cohesion funding has been hit by political controversy, after the European Commission withheld funds from far-right governments in Hungary and Poland due to their abuse of the rule of law in recent years.
But despite the sometimes difficult political climate in Europe, Benea said REGI could help bring people together.
“More than ever, Europe needs to remind citizens of its reliable and solid presence in their daily lives,” Benea said.
“Across the entire Europe, the cohesion and regional development policy proves continuously what Europe means and what it stands for closer integration and true solidarity,” he said.
The REGI coordinators are: Andrey Novakov (EPP, Bulgaria), Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D, Spain), Afroditi Latinopoulou (PfE, Greece), Denis Nesci (ECR, Italy), Ľubica Karvašová (Renew, Slovakia), Vladimir Prebilič (Greens, Slovenia), Valentina Palmisano (The Left, Italy), and Irmhild Bossdorf (ESN, Germany).
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.