Resistance rallies against EU's €392 billion regional f unding overhaul

Fourteen countries have teamed up to defend a "distinct and robust" pot of EU cash for regional development, just as the European Commission prepares to unveil its proposal for the next long-term budget.
In a non-paper seen by Euractiv, the group – made up of Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia – calls for cohesion funding to remain a separate pot and not to merge it into a potential 'megafund'.
The group joins a growing chorus of opponents of a planned root-and-branch overhaul of the way the EU's €392 billion cohesion fund is structured and disbursed, following a letter raising similar concerns by 149 regional governments last month.