C 498/46
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
30.12.2022
12. highlights the effectiveness of cohesion policy in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, notably through the flexibility measures introduced as of April 2020 (the two Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) packages);
13. considers, however, that it is essential to maintain the focus of cohesion policy on strengthening territorial, economic and social cohesion in Europe;
A definition of the concept ‘do no harm to cohesion’ 14. sees the opportunities of the introduction of a new concept in the Cohesion Report aiming to extend a comprehensive approach to cohesion policy to any European public policy with territorial impact;
15. stresses that this concept fully supports the initiative of the European Committee of the Regions to demonstrate the role of economic, social and territorial cohesion as a fundamental value of the European Union;
16. considers that this concept could enable any European policy to take account of the diversity of the different regional realities in the European Union, while increasing its effectiveness and improving the visibility of EU action among citizens
17. opposes, however, the extremely restrictive interpretation of this concept, according to which this principle would only apply to operational programmes and not even to the partnership agreement; reiterates to the European Commission that this principle of ‘do no harm to cohesion’ must apply to all European policies in order to reduce the anti-cohesive effect of certain European policies or programmes;
18. particularly supports the need mentioned in the Cohesion Report for the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to support cohesion in Europe;
19. calls on the Members States and the European Commission to ensure that the RRF and any possible successor directly incorporates the cohesion policy approach based on multilevel governance and partnership;
20. stresses, furthermore, the need to better align and increase synergies between cohesion policy and Horizon Europe in order to strengthen innovation in all European regions and thereby develop their research and innovation capacities, which allows the EU to compete on a global scale by investing in regional excellence and can be a solution to the development trap of middle-income regions;
21. points out, in this connection, that it is important for these regions in the middle-income development trap to have specific support, either through belonging to the category of intermediate regions or by means of easier access to territorial cooperation instruments in the field of innovation;
22. calls for the consolidation of the approach based on smart specialisation strategies in order to boost competitiveness and the innovation ecosystem on the basis of place-based strategies and enhanced territorial cooperation;
23. calls on the European Commission to define the concept ‘do no harm to cohesion’ and to make it a real mechanism for assessing the impact of European policies on cohesion in Europe; proposes that the rural proofing provided for in the Communication on a long-term vision for the EU's rural areas be included in this mechanism in order to take account of the specific characteristics of these areas; calls on the European Commission to develop specific guidelines on the practical implementation of this concept, including the use of legislation after consulting the European Committee of the Regions;
Cohesion policy at the heart of a long-term European strategy 24. points out that, even though cohesion policy is at the heart of the achievement of the European Green Deal and the European Pillar of Social Rights, it is not part of a long-term European strategy as such, unlike 2014-2020 cohesion policy, which was directly linked to the achievement of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy;