YOU ARE INVITED

to take part in a Written Stakeholder Consultation on the
European Fund for Regional Development including for Interreg and the Cohesion Fund 2028-2034

Rapporteur María GUARDIOLA MARTÍN (ES/EPP), President of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura

Dear Sir/Madam,

The CoR has appointed Ms María Guardiola Martín (ES/EPP), President of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, as rapporteur for the opinion on the European Fund for Regional Development including for Interreg and the Cohesion Fund 2028-2034.

In order to enrich her opinion, the rapporteur would like to gather your views and feedback on the following questions:

1. What is your overall assessment of the Commission proposal? What are its positive aspects and what should be improved? How do you assess the reduction in the number of articles on the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund from 18 to 6 compared to the previous period?

2. Do you think that the Commission proposal respects the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality, additionality and ‘do no harm to cohesion’, as well as multi-level governance and the partnership principle?

3. The budget available for the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund will depend on the decisions Member States make on using the fund in their NRP plans. Do you think that the lack of own budget lines for the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund in the Commission proposal could lead to ‘competition’ with other sources of funding included in the fund’s NRP plans?

4. Which specific priorities and objectives should the ERDF focus on in 2028-2034?

5. Do you think the Commission proposal makes sufficient progress on simplification and flexibility? What improvements do you think are needed to progress further in these areas?

6. How do you think the ERDF will help improve European competitiveness in 2028-2034?

7. Do you think that the Commission proposal sufficiently considers/respects European territorial cooperation and Interreg? What improvements are needed in this regard? Do you think that there should be a separate regulation for Interreg? If not, should the section on general provisions (Chapter I) be separate from the section on Interreg (Chapter II)? The budget for Interreg will be available from 2029. What impact do you expect this to have on the continuity of ongoing cooperation?

8. Do you think that the lack of references to the Cohesion Fund in the Commission’s proposal could be problematic?

9. How could the continuity of JTF funds be preserved in 2028-2034?

10. Do you think that the Commission proposal sufficiently considers synergies and complementarity with other sources of EU funding? What improvements are needed in this regard?

You may find more background information in the rapporteur's working document in all EU languages on our website.

Please send your answers to coter-survey@cor.europa.eu by 5 December mid-day (Brussels time).

The draft opinion is scheduled for adoption at the CoR COTER Commission meeting on 5 February 2026.

We look forward to hearing your views!

Kind regards,

COTER Secretariat