Cohesion Policy is the second-largest policy of the EU in terms of budget and it has as one of its main beneficiaries the European regions. By reducing social and economic disparities, it plays a key role in strengthening the European integration project and it supports regions to align their strategies to EU priorities.
ECRN is an example of a success story of the INTERREG Programme, which allows regions to work together across borders. Our members have been joining forces in various interregional projects such as ChemClust, ChemMultimodal, and S3Chem. Futhermore, ECRN is leading the chemical industry’s thematic partnership under the smart specialisation S3platform, supporting the establishment of common projects and regional joint investments, with the objective of modernization of the chemical industry to a sustainable, energy- and resource-efficient sector.
Given the importance of Cohesion Policy, ECRN has been working on a joint vision for the future of Cohesion Policy post 2020, emphasizing the contributions of the policy for European regions and the need for its continuity.