Ministers of EU countries will discuss solutions to unpredictable events in Prague
Update: 01/09/2022 13:03
Issued by: 01/09/2022, 13:03
Prague – The meeting of heads of departments in Prague as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU continues on Friday with an informal meeting of the ministers responsible for cohesion policy in the countries of the European Union (EU), which has the task of developing regions and reducing the differences between them. Ministers will discuss the role of cohesion policy in dealing with the impact of unpredictable events such as pandemics or war. The meeting will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates).
The first part of the meeting will focus on the debate on the importance of the development of regions, which increases the living standards of citizens and their competitiveness, and on measuring their support after 2027. The second will focus on coherence in dealing with the impacts, recovery and resilience of regions in the event of unpredictable events caused by the crisis due to the coronavirus, war in Ukraine or natural disasters.
In addition to the development of regions, cohesion policies are involved, for example, in digitization or climate solutions such as decarbonization. New European trends and their contribution to the regions will also be the topic of ministerial debates.
After Thursday’s dinner in the Strahov Monastery, Friday is the business day. The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, will be present, and representatives of the European Parliament (REGI Committee), the European Court of Auditors, the European Committee of the Regions or the European Economic Community will join the meeting.
As part of the EU’s cohesion policy, funds are distributed to support regions, for example the modernization of hospitals, schools or the support of cyber security, through funds. The Czechia could draw 535 billion crowns from them in the period 2014 to 2020 and 550 billion crowns in the new period 2021 to 2027.
The Czech Republic has held the presidency of the European Union since the beginning of July. Defense ministers and foreign affairs ministers of European countries are already meeting in Prague this week. In the middle of the month, the ministry responsible for cohesion policy will be followed by the ministers of health, economy and finance and the ministers of agriculture.