Left MEP Younous Omarjee (La France Insoumise) was today re-elected chair of the European Parliament’s committee on Regional Development.

“I am honoured by the renewed confidence of my colleagues, with whom I am determined to meet the challenges facing Europe”, Omarjee said. “The health crisis has revealed the fragility of the European Union’s economic development model and its budgetary policies on member states whose chronic under-investment is often compensated by cohesion policy. I am very proud of the enormous amount of work we have accomplished in a context of the unprecedented difficulties linked to the Covid 19 crisis.”

Through the cohesion policy funds, the committee contributes to reducing development gaps between European territories. With €370 billion over seven years, regional policy is, for the first time in its history, the largest European budget item.

Its mission is to involve regional and local authorities in the European decision-making process and thus to promote greater citizen participation. It is a political body that brings together Europe’s local elected representatives from 300 regions, giving a voice to some 100,000 local authorities and 1 million local politicians representing the 441 million citizens of the Union.

“Through our proposals and decisions, we were able to avoid a collapse in all European regions by offering the territories the means to mitigate the economic, social and health impacts of the Covid crisis. Thus, at the height of the crisis, our committee put on the table a first package of measures worth 370 bn euros to make the structural funds more flexible and to deal with emergencies such as the purchasing of masks and artificial respirators, but also support for employees and businesses.. This range of measures has begun to be deployed throughout 2021 and is already showing its virtuous effects,” Omarjee concluded.