Our guest recently described the EU's action on cohesion – levelling up Europe's diverse regions – as "more than a policy: rather, a guiding principle to strengthen and unite Europe" in an op-ed. Elisa Ferreira has been the EU Commissioner in charge of Cohesion and Reforms since 2019. On Talking Europe, we discuss the outcome of the European elections, and whether new spending priorities – including on defence – could end up competing with cohesion funding needs. Despite her warnings on that, Ferreira remains optimistic. "I trust that we Europeans will be intelligent enough not to fragment Europe in such difficult times," she tells the programme. We also showcase a best-of our cohesion reports over the past year, filmed by Luke Brown and Johan Bodin.
Ferreira addresses the rise in far-right parties in the June 2024 EU elections – a vote that was obvious in poorer regions which, perhaps paradoxically, have benefited from cohesion funding. "If there is no progress, if people feel that the next generation will have a worse life than their own lives, then people start doubting if there is a place for them in this economy and in this Europe. And then they start blaming people, blaming someone for this lack of future. So it is important that we give a dimension of mutual support, with different intensities and with different instruments, because in certain regions you still need to solve roads or basic infrastructures. In other regions you just need to help these regions to go through their transitions. The solidarity across citizens and regions is what makes Europe a success project."
Turning to the battle for the top EU jobs following the election, Ferreira comments: "I would like to make sure, with all the results that we have from the Parliament, that we have a pro-European group of leaders that manage to keep Europe together, that put cohesion at the centre of the agenda and at the same time prepare Europe to be strong and competitive, and create well-paid jobs inside Europe and good businesses inside Europe, so that young people can have a good and prosperous life and have families if they so wish without leaving Europe."
Ferreira admits that procedures for beneficiaries of cohesion funds still need to be simplified – as the High-Level Report on the Future of Cohesion Policy recommended earlier this year – but she insists that this cannot come at the expense of safeguards needed to prevent fraud. "We have got to make sure that we know where the money goes, that we have instruments to prevent fraud and wrongdoing completely. We reach very high standards every year. In terms of fraud, the level is less than 1 percent, when we close the accounts at the end of every funding period. But even less than 1 percent is too much," she says.
"I think the likely evolution of cohesion policy is to be simpler," Ferreira goes on. "But that also requires more capacity at regional level to explain, to make the right diagnosis on what is blocking regions' development. Because the purpose of the funds is not to create a permanent subsidy. It is to create the conditions to not need subsidies later on."
Programme produced by Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Anaïs Boucher
