Source: European Parliament
Priority question for written answer P-001882/2024/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 144
Irmhild Boßdorf (ESN)
In the current programming period (2021-2027), around EUR 373 billion has been earmarked for EU Cohesion Policy.
When I asked at the REGI Committee meeting on 9 September 2024 what tangible results EU Cohesion Policy had brought, Commissioner Ferreira was vague in her response. The main point she made in her comments was that Cohesion Policy had a direct influence on elections in beneficiary regions – more specifically, it tended to bring down the anti-EU vote.
According to an April 2024 study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy entitled ‘Paying off Populism: EU-Regionalpolitik verringert Unterstützung populistischer Parteien’ [‘EU regional policy reduces support for populist parties’], targeted EU regional policy measures and investments have the power to shave 2-3 % off the right-wing populists’ share of the vote[1].
- 1.Is EU Cohesion Policy being used to target projects in regions in which anti-EU or patriotic parties are polling better than average?
- 2.In the current programming period, are projects which seek to steer or push things in a specific pro-European political direction being financed by EU Cohesion Policy?
Submitted: 30.9.2024
- [1] https://www.ifw-kiel.de/fileadmin/Dateiverwaltung/IfW-Publications/fis-import/f16df84e-a721-422e-a087-de3d56c8473e-KPB_172_dt_0804_V3.pdf