''The strength of cohesion policy as a long-term investment policy lies in maintaining its principles. It is important that cohesion policy is kept with all its principles, and that it is further strengthened and adapted to make an even greater contribution to the development and resilience of the European Union,’’ stressed Minister Jevšek.

He reiterated Slovenia’s position that shared management should be kept in the future and that all partners and stakeholders at all levels should be involved in the programme design and implementation in line with the partnership principle.

According to Minister Jevšek, cohesion policy must support investments and reforms that build on the specifics, opportunities and concrete needs of regions and cities while helping reduce disparities between the levels of development of the various regions. The Minister also called for introducing as many flexibilities and simplifications as possible at all levels to increase the effectiveness of cohesion policy implementation, while considering these already in the preparation of legislative proposals for the new programming period.   

''Cohesion policy needs clear and simple rules. Above all, it needs to be result-oriented,’’ concluded Minister Jevšek and advocated for maintaining the level of funding for cohesion policy at its current level or even increasing it in the next programming period.

Today’s meeting of cohesion policy ministers was the last one for the outgoing European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira. Commissioner Ferreira underscored the key achievements of cohesion policy in the past years, in particular its essential role in managing the covid-19 crisis. Commissioner, who launched the debate on the future of cohesion policy, said at the end of her mandate: ''Internal cohesion of the European Union is key for our future. Cohesion policy needs to be modernised, but its core principles must be kept. This is the path to success.’’