Charting a New Course for EU Cohesion Policy After 2027

With under a year to go before the Commission presents proposals for the next MFF and the future of Cohesion Policy, the reform debate is intensifying. The EU is seeking ways to strengthen its industrial and technological base and economic resilience, ensure better connectivity and improved productivity, in order to achieve strategic autonomy. These are key priorities for the next MFF along with acceleration of the green and digital transitions, dealing with demographic challenges and enhanced security. However, there is a gap between EU ambitions and the funding available.

For Cohesion Policy, the Commission is seeking a more place-based approach, tailoring intervention to the specific development needs of territories (including development traps), defending multilevel governance and the role of subnational authorities, greater coherence with other EU and national policies, a more performance-based delivery model, combining reforms and investments putting more emphasis on institutional capacity building.

This paper examines the current state-of-play of Cohesion Policy and its future reform beyond 2027. It begins with an overview of the political and policy context for Cohesion Policy. It reviews the current state of play for programming in 2021-27 and also progress with the Recovery & Resilience Facility, which offers an alternative model for implementing EU funding. The paper then discusses the political and policy debates around the current and future MFFs before focusing on the agenda for Cohesion Policy, reviewing the emerging policy positions of the EU institutions and Member States. The final section discusses the key challenges and questions facing Cohesion Policy in the future.