Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund

• Around 10 billion allocated to cross-border transport projects will come from Cohesion Funds and will help EU countries complete missing transport links.
• We need to develop further and faster transport projects to stimulate growth, be more competitive and strengthen cohesion across Europe.
• Achieving the Green Deal will not be possible if we do not upgrade our infrastructure for the digital and environmental transition.
• Next steps

  The informal deal on the Connecting Europe Facility programme still needs to be approved by the Councils Committee of Permanent Representatives and Parliaments Transport and Industry committees, and then the Council and Parliament as a whole.

• EU member states' ambassadors today endorsed the provisional agreement reached on 15 December between the Council Presidency and European Parliament's representatives on a regulation setting up the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), in the context of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF).
• With the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) the EU is showing its capacity to act in the world.
• I also welcome the fact that, with the NDICI, the EU is putting an emphasis on climate action.
• The new instrument will streamline and simplify EU external action financing instruments for international and development cooperation, crisis response or peace-building actions in partner countries.
• It will do so by merging ten existing external financing instruments - as well as the European Development Fund - into one single financing tool.
• It will promote multilateralism, strategic priorities and the achievement of key international commitments and objectives, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
• In addition, European Neighbourhood countries will benefit from enhanced political cooperationand support for the purposes of enhancing regional cooperation and promoting integration into the EUs internal market.
• Actions financed under this component aim at strengthening resilience of crisis affected countries, linking humanitarian and development actions and addressing foreign policy needs and priorities.

Background and next steps

• The Parliament adopted its first-reading position on 27 March 2019 and the Council adopted a partial mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on 13 June 2019.
• On 27 May 2020, the Commission published a revised MFF proposal and at the Special Meeting of the European Council (17-21 July 2020), and member states decided on the sum to allocate for the total budget of the NDICI.
• Following today's endorsement by Coreper, the European Parliament and the Council will translate the agreement into legislative text before final steps will be taken for its adoption.

• These funds together represent the most powerful investment tools in the EU budget, providing 242.9 billion euro for EU regional funding over the next seven years.
• "The agreement on the European Development Fund and Cohesion Fund is a decisive step for cities and regions.
• The CoR welcomes the compromises on key demands advocated by cities and regions helping to establish cohesion as a fundamental value.
• The Cohesion Fund (CF) is reserved for countries whose per capita Gross Domestic Product is below 90% of the EU average.

• The German Presidency of the Council and the European Parliament struck a political deal on two structural funds that together will account for over 240 billion of EU investment in the 2021-2027 period.
• The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund are part of the next multiannual financial framework, which needs to be adopted before the fund-specific legislation can be enacted.
• The draft regulation agreed by the co-legislators simplifies the rules for the two funds and sets the scope of their support over the next seven years.
• Another new provision allows for investment in medical equipment and supplies in addition to infrastructure to boost the resilience of health services.