Rapporteur and ECR Vice-President Juraj Droba's opinion on "Effectively engaging local and regional authorities in the preparation of partnership agreements and operational programmes for the 2021-2027 period" was adopted by members of the European Committee of the Regions during the COTER commission meeting on 22 June.

​Mr Droba, who also serves as the President of the Bratislava Region, said: “The preparation of the new programming period is at a crucial stage and partnership agreements and operational programs are currently being developed in individual countries. If their ambition is to contribute greatly to solving the key challenges of the territory, the effective involvement of local and regional authorities in their preparation is a necessary prerequisite. The opinion aims to emphasise the importance of the principles of partnership and multilevel governance in the programming process and to send a clear political signal that the voices of regions and cities should be heard as full partners in it."

Mr Droba also referred to the importance of parallel diplomacy saying he "would like to stress its importance by regional and local authorities at European level". The rapporteur would also like to see the European Commission "involving them more in negotiations on the shape of the partnership agreements and operational programmes".

Members of the COTER commission regret that the outbreak of the pandemic has delayed the drafting of partnership agreements and operational programmes, and call for an immediate acceleration of the preparatory work. Moreover, they warn against trends towards centralisation in the programming and implementation of Structural Funds as a result of the pandemic and the parallel running of two programming periods, the 2014-20 period and the new 2021-27 period.
 

The opinion will be up for final adoption during the CoR's plenary session in October.