Seville: Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto has linked cohesion policy to the EU’s competitiveness agenda, saying around 220 billion euros, or more than 58 percent of investment, supports the Competitiveness Compass. He spoke on 14 October 2026 at a session called A Cohesion Policy for a Competitive Union during the European Week of Regions and Cities. The Commission calculated the figure itself, and the speech gives no base total for the percentage.
Fitto described the mid-term review as just a first step. Member states and regions could voluntarily move money to five new priorities, namely competitiveness, housing, energy, water and defence. He said 35 billion euros was mobilised, with more than 15 billion going to competitiveness, which compares with the 34.6 billion euros the Commission announced earlier.
The speech then turned to the 2028 to 2034 budget. Fitto pointed to a European Competitiveness Fund and to future National and Regional Partnership Plans, which would give governments and regions more flexibility. He also warned against a single model, saying what works for a major industrial region will not necessarily work for a rural area, an island, an outermost region or a region in industrial transition.
He named gaps in quality jobs, housing, healthcare, education and infrastructure as factors in business investment decisions. That framing treats cohesion policy as a tool for attracting firms as well as closing income gaps. Critics of the approach worry that competitiveness goals could pull funds towards regions that already attract investment.
The European Committee of the Regions voiced exactly that concern on the same day. It warned that the 2028 to 2034 proposal risks concentrating decisions on territorial investment at national level. Committee President Kata Tüttő said cohesion and competitiveness belong together, while First Vice-President Juanma Moreno, who leads the regional government of Andalusia, said simplification must not become a pretext for recentralisation.
The Council has already taken a position of its own. It adopted a partial negotiating position on cohesion fund rules for 2028 to 2034 in June 2026, according to the Council’s website. The material reviewed gives no figures for the new period, no financing details and no dates for decisions, so the debate remains open.
The coming negotiations will show whether regions keep a direct say. If the partnership plans leave real decision power with regional authorities, cohesion policy can serve both goals that Fitto named. If national capitals take control, the Committee of the Regions will treat the competitiveness link as the start of recentralisation, and the fight over cohesion policy will intensify.
