Minister Lintilä and European Commissioner Oettinger discussed the EU’s multiannual financial framework and the future of cohesion policy

Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä met with European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günther Oettinger on 26 April 2018 when the Commissioner visited Finland. They discussed the EU’s multiannual financial framework and especially the cohesion policy reform and criteria for the allocation of funds.

“Cohesion policy should be a modern tool for generating more skills, innovation and international competitiveness of regions. Finland wants the cohesion policy to continue across the Union, but at the same time the content of the policy should be reformed and any unnecessary bureaucracy removed. The most important issue is the more efficient use of funding,” Minister Lintilä reminds.

“We discussed in depth how sparsely populated regions and immigration could be taken into account when cohesion policy funds are allocated,” Minister Lintilä says.

Commissioner Oettinger emphasised that the Commission’s proposal for the new multiannual financial framework, due next week, serves only as a foundation for further negotiations. Once the proposal is issued, the work can start on the details of the sector-specific policies. However, the Commission’s proposal will be based on the premise that cohesion policy will continue throughout the Union even during the next term.

The Minister of Economic Affairs met with the Commissioner as part of his pro-active campaign to influence the EU’s forthcoming financial framework. This spring Minister Lintilä will be meeting with six Commissioners and cohesions ministers from several Member States. Permanent Secretary Jari Gustafsson from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has also joined the effort and visited four European capitals (Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Haag) to discuss Finland’s views on the EU cohesion policy.

Read also the press release by the Government Communications Department: European Commissioner Oettinger to visit Helsinki

Inquiries:
Jannika Ranta, Special Adviser to the Minister of Economic Affairs, tel. +358 50 340 2250
Akseli Koskela, Adviser to the Minister of Economic Affairs, tel. +358 46 923 2584