The CoR believes that the European Commission has presented an ambitious, well integrated proposal budget proposal post 2013. Indeed, according to the CoR most of the proposals made by the Committee in its opinions on the budget review and the future cohesion and agricultural policies have been taken on board.

The president of the Committee of the Regions, Mercedes Bresso highlighted following the Commission's adoption of its proposal for the post-2013 Multiannual Financial Framework, that the Commission can count on the CoR to support it and convince people (not least, certain national governments) of its merits. Moreover, Bresso underlined the importance to ensure that negotiations do not lead to any distortion or watering down of these proposals, notably by the Council of Ministers. Therefore, the CoR will collaborate with the European Parliament, which decides on the EU budget in co-decision together with the Council.

In addition, the CoR shares the Commission's point of view regarding the idea of strong linkage with the Europe 2020 strategy. For Europe to get out of the crisis, this strategy needs resources and wide ownership, extending beyond the narrow circle of national governments. According to Bresso, local and regional authorities, socio-economic players and the residents of our regions, cities and villages must all have a stake in it. She also stated that cohesion policy remains the key tool for achieving this objective. Thus, the introduction of the new category of regions in transition is clearly a great news. It should take shape with the partnership agreements between the Union, Member States and regions, and we stress that these should cover all the Structural Funds: not just the ESF and the ERDF, but also the rural development fund and the European Fisheries Fund. However, the CoR president was cautious on one point, that cohesion policy will be judged on its ability to produce visible results. But the proposed cross-compliance arrangements seem to her rather complex.

Mercedes Bresso also had reservations about the Connecting Europe Facility because if it is managed at European level, that will be a plus as it is the only technical and political means of securing the major investment needed in energy, transport and advanced communications. But it's not clear how it will fit in with regional development strategies. Territorial cohesion is at stake here, as well as economic and social cohesion.