And there is another proposal – this for housing
The European Commission has proposed this Tuesday a reaction of cohesion funds to promote military mobility and reinforce defense capabilities, as well as to double the financing available for accessible housing in the European Union (EU).
“Today, the European Commission is reviewing the EU cohesion policy to better support the competitiveness and decarbonization of the EU, defense and safety, oriental border regions, as well as affordable housing, water resilience and energy transition,” the institution announces on Tuesday.
Vinking that the idea is to “make cohesion policy more effective, encouraging Member States and regions to invest in European strategic priorities”, the community executive proposes to the member states to reprograpse “part of their cohesion funds 2021-2027 for new investments in the current interim review of cohesion policy”.
With regard to security and defense, one of the main community priorities, the proposal aims that the EU countries “use current cohesion funds to build resistant infrastructures that promote military mobility”, also allowing to “support the productive skills of small and large companies” in this sector.
On the other hand, and when there is a housing crisis in the community bloc that mainly affects the younger and the most vulnerable, the European Commission suggests “duplicate the amount of cohesion policy financing enshrined in affordable housing.”
In addition, Member States can also mobilize private and public financing through a new financial instrument created in conjunction with the European Investment Bank.
Other aspects of the now suggested reaction include the resilience of water resources, energy transition and competitiveness and decarbonization.
Tuesday’s changes to cohesion policy legislation, proposed in the context of the 2025 interpretation review, will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council, and the Commission wants to complete the reprogramming later this year so that the new programs can be executed from the beginning of 2026.
Countries will have to review their plans and Brussels will have to give their approval to, ideally in January 2026, the changes are in force.
With a budget of 392 billion euros for the current programming period 2021-2027, cohesion policy is the EU’s main investment policy.
It is estimated that this financing of cohesion policy in 2021-2027 enables the creation of 1.3 million jobs in the 27 countries and the increase in EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.5% on average.
In Portugal, one of the main beneficiaries of these funds, the funds of cohesion policy should grow the national economy by another 3% by 2029.
The Community Staff in EU foresees about 23 billion euros for Portugal to execute cohesion programs.
Tuesday’s proposal comes after, in early March, Brussels advanced with a plan of 800 billion euros to reinforce EU defense capabilities, which includes, among other measures, the reaction of cohesion funds to invest in this sector.
Due to the weight of the amounts of cohesion in the country, it is not certain that the country will resort to such a plan.
