The President of the Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, Mr. Nikola Dobroslavic participated at the virtual meeting of the European Committee of the Regions on the 3rd COTER commission. He welcomed the ambition shown by the European Commission with its revised proposal for a 2021 – 2027 EU budget and Recovery Plan, presented last week to the European Parliament. In particular, the President welcomed the innovative and bold approach which foresees the European Commission raising €750 billion to be reinvested mostly through grants via EU policies such as Cohesion Policy and reinforcing key EU Programmes.

AIE president, Nikola Dobroslavic, as President of Dubrovnik-Neretva County and CoR Rapporteur on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MMF) said: “I welcome the European Commission’s Plan to introduce an extension of current cohesion policy Programmes with additional funding until 2022, and to strengthen the level of 2021-27 regional policy investments for sustainable growth and resilience. This will support job creation, business competitiveness, economic growth and sustainable development. The European Committee of the Regions is determined to continue its work to increase the visibility of the EUs budget and of its added value for people’s life.  There is an important focus on Cohesion and regions and this is a step in the right direction also for the cross-border and transnational cooperation. So the proposal of the Commission goes in the right direction. I would stress that the proposal of the new EU Recovery plan with 750 billion EUR, 500 of it as grants, the rest as loans will be a large benefit to the EU economy, to the Member states, regions and cities”.

Also the AIE Secretary General, Francesco Cocco, appreciates the step change expecting an innovative Recovery and Resilience plan able to involve and support the regional authorities in the designing and implementation of the investment plans which must take into account the differentiated impacts of the crisis across regions and territories.