the new cohesion policy 2021-2027

Towards the new ADRION: A view ahead on the next Programming period 2021-2027

ADRION current programming period will be officially over in 2020.  What does it come next?

Although, the future of the Programme is part of a negotiating process among concerned bodies (EC; European Parliament; the European Council; Committee of the Regions, etc.), a taskforce has been set up at Programme level in order to discuss with our Partner States the areas and topics of the new ADRION and the ways to involve Programme stakeholders with public consultations. The taskforce is also in charge of commissioning a territorial analysis that will give useful insights on the future needs of the Programme. The taskforce already met twice in 2019 and will meet again on 17th February in Brussels.

These meetings will advance in parallel with the EU-level negotiations on the budgetary and regulatory framework. In this regard, the European Commission has just presented its Orientation Paper on ADRION, a document aimed at triggering a discussion on the future Programme with Partner States concerned. It does not represent the negotiating position of the EC, but it intends to give orientations on the thematic focus of the future Cooperation Programme.  The paper highlights some important points:

  • The future Adriatic-Ionian programme should closely link with the EUSAIR priorities and objectives
  • For transnational cooperation is paramount to address joint challenges in areas, known well as “functional areas” which have joint characteristics. Transnational cooperation is reaching its full potential when there is a strong will to address those challenges jointly
  • The programme should concentrate on thematic key areas where joint actions can have the biggest impact. In doing so, EU funds would focus on a limited set of objectives and policy areas, thus achieving the highest possible impact, in terms of efficiency of funding and result orientation.

Based on these principles, the European Commission recommends concentrating the available funds for the future ADRION on:

  • Policy Objective 1 (a smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation)
  • Policy Objective 2 (a greener, low-carbon Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate adaptation and risk prevention and management)
  • Policy Objective 5 (a Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of urban, rural and coastal areas and local initiatives)
  • Interreg-specific objective (a better Interreg governance, enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders to implement macro-regional strategies).

Nevertheless, something we are sure about is that the new ADRION will enlarge the family: North Macedonia will join in the new Programming period, raising the number of Partner Countries to 9.

While we keep supporting the 56 projects running within the current programming period as well as working on the finalisation of the 3rd Calls projects evaluation, the programming of the post-2020 future will intensify over the course of this year. So, stay tuned for updates!

Meanwhile, the Programme has reached some important achievements we are proud to share with you through this infographic.