On 9 October and as part of the 2018 European Week of Regions and Cities, the Members of the CoR's Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER) and the European Parliament's Committee for Regional Development (REGI) held a joint meeting. In his contribution to the debate, ECR Member Pavel Branda underlined that the best example of the EU's added value is its investment in cross-border cooperation and called for more funds to be devoted to this important area under the next EU budget.

 "People-to-people projects play a key role in cross-border cooperation programmes and have contributed greatly to building trust between local communities. Introducing cuts in this area, as proposed by the European Commission in its May legislative package, would be a mistake," said the ECR Coordinator.

 The purpose of the COTER-REGI meeting was to align the positions of the two committees with regard to the European Commission's proposals for Cohesion Policy beyond 2021. During the discussion, Members from both the CoR and the European Parliament took turns in sharing their support for Cohesion Policy and their frustration with the announced cuts to its budget.

 Regarding simplification, Mr Branda welcomed the European Commission's proposal to create a Cross-Border Mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context. According to Mr Branda, this voluntary mechanism will "help facilitate cross-border activities and encourage small-scale projects that are of added value."

 In her keynote speech, the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu outlined the changes to the funds proposed by the Commission. She explained that "the radical simplification will shift the focus from procedures to results and deliver a smarter, more competitive and greener Europe".

 Apart from the ECR Group Coordinator, Mr Pavel Branda (Deputy Mayor of Radlo in the Czech Republic), the meeting was also attended by ECR Member, Juraj Droba (President of the Bratislava region in Slovakia).