Minister Jevšek meets EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, Raffaele Fitto
Raffaele Fitto, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform and Aleksander Jevšek, Minister of Cohesion and Regional Development | Author European Commission
At the beginning of February, the Slovenian government adopted its position on the future of Cohesion Policy post-2027. Slovenia advocates for a strong, resilient and stable Cohesion Policy with a sufficient budget in the post-2027 period. It specifies that no region or Member State should experience sudden and drastic cuts in EU funding. The next Multiannual Financial Framework should simplify programmes, funds and instruments with similar objectives to increase their impact, improve flexibility and cut red tape. However, all the fundamental principles of Cohesion Policy should be preserved in the post-2027 period, including shared management, multilevel governance, partnership and the territorial approach. Greater flexibility and simplification should be introduced at all levels. We need clear and simple rules.
Regarding the implementation of the 2021-2027 programming period, Minister Jevšek said that the country is aware that the implementation of Slovenia’s Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027 is proceeding more slowly than planned. The main reasons for this are the intensive work concentrated on the closure of the previous financial perspective, the simultaneous implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the two-year delay in the start of the current financial perspective and the devastating floods that hit Slovenia in 2023.
»The Ministry, as the Managing Authority, has therefore already taken steps to speed up the implementation at the level of intermediate bodies and beneficiaries. We are in the final stages of preparing the amendments to Slovenia’s Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027, which are expected to be adopted by the Government this week, approved by the Monitoring Committee in March, and then forwarded to DG Regio," Minister Jevšek underlined. The amendments to the programme include the introduction of a new priority for actions related to the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), increase in funding for financial instruments, and the transfer of measures from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism to support rail infrastructure and flood protection.