Eduardo González
The People’s Parliamentary Group in Congress has proposed that the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European Union increase the allocation for national plans in agriculture, fisheries, and cohesion, and include “a more flexible and less centralized programming model” for national plans that strengthens the participation of the autonomous communities “as managing authorities” with the capacity to “interact directly with the European Commission.”
In a non-binding motion registered on April 9 for debate in plenary session, the PP recalls that the MFF “constitutes the main instrument of budgetary planning for the Union, setting spending limits and policy priorities that guide its action for a period of seven years.” “Its design determines Europe’s capacity to respond effectively to the economic, social, territorial, and geopolitical challenges of the next decade,” it adds.
According to the People’s Party (PP), “the debate on the new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is taking place in a particularly demanding context: loss of competitiveness compared to other advanced economies, regulatory pressure on the productive sector, persistent geopolitical tensions, the climate and digital transition, and the need to strengthen security and territorial cohesion.”
Therefore, it warns, “the European budget must focus on those policies that provide real added value at the European level and guarantee cohesion, prosperity, and stability,” and to achieve this objective, “the new MFF must ensure predictability and transparency in the management of funds, avoiding an excessive concentration of decisions in a single centralized instrument.”
In this context, the PP considers it “essential that regional and local authorities actively participate in the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs” because “only in this way will resources be adapted to the specific needs of each territory, strengthening multi-level governance and maintaining economic, social, and territorial cohesion as the central axis of the budget.”
For this reason, the proposal urges the Government to promote in the new Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 “an increase in the allocation for national plans” in the areas of agriculture, fisheries and cohesion, “guaranteeing sufficient and stable funding, updated to inflation”, and the creation of specific allocations for Cohesion Policy, “with sufficient funding for structural and investment funds”; For the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and Aquaculture, and for the outermost regions, “through the Programs of Options Specific to Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI).”
Furthermore, the proposal calls for “the recognition of the autonomous communities as fundamental pillars in the governance and implementation of regional instruments, enabling them to act as management authorities, including mandatory regional plans within national plans and interacting directly with the Commission.”
Similarly, it calls for “a more flexible and less centralized programming model for national plans, one that strengthens the participation of the autonomous communities and avoids the uniformity of the Next Generation EU approach, especially regarding conditionality between reforms and investments, which must occur within the same sectoral area, respect the appropriate level of competence, and be aligned with country-specific recommendations.”
