EU Ministers set out guiding principles for cohesion policy – recognizing also need for measures to support sparsely populated northern regions

The EU’s Ministers for European Affairs gathered in Brussels on 30 November to discuss EU's cohesion policy, and adopted conclusions on the future development of EU’s cohesion policy. The need to implement special measures to support sparsely populated northern regions was recognized in the conclusions.

The conclusions(Link to another website.) adopted by the General Affairs Council set out the guiding principles for EU’s future cohesion policy. The conclusions affirm the common view of the EU’s member states that cohesion policy must remain a key pillar of the EU. The objective is to strengthen the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion and the reduction of regional disparities.

While cohesion policy is a policy for all EU regions, it is especially designed to support less-developed regions, with particular attention to rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition, and regions that suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as the northernmost sparsely populated regions, as well as island, cross-border and mountain regions.

For Finland, three particular points stand out in the conclusions:

• The Council is conscious of implementing special measures to support sparsely populated northern regions.
•  The Council invites the Commission to draw up alternatives, to offer better and more targeted support to regions suffering from geopolitical instability on the EU's eastern external border.
• The Council emphasizes the need to protect the financial interests of the Union based on the rule of law conditionality system.

Minister for European Affairs Anders Adlercreutz, who represented Finland, reminded of the changed geopolitical landscape.
 
“The eastern areas of the European Union, our eastern border, have changed from a gateway to the east to a hard border. It’s essential also for the European security that these border areas are inhabited, that there is a presence and activities, that people can get their livelihoods living in the regions. It is essential also for the security of the European Union. And that’s why it is really important that the eastern border regions are recognized when the future cohesion policy is being shaped,” minister highlighted.

The minister also pointed out that cohesion policy is about solidarity and about sharing our common means and values.

“Rule of law conditionality should be at the center of cohesion policy. We can’t have a Union where our values, the same rules, are not shared,” he said.