1. Cohesion policy: overview by “goals”

The total cohesion policy "global resources" is EUR 392 billion, the amount being expressed in “current prices”.

The allocations fall under the following "goals" and headings: 

1) IJG: Investment for jobs and growth goal representing 92% (361.056,8 M) funded by

- the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF);

- the European Social Fund+ (ESF+);

- the Cohesion Fund;

- the Just Transition Fund (JTF) representing 5% (19.236,9M)

2) Interreg: European Territorial Cooperation goal representing 2% (9.041,6M)

3) Commission managed EU instruments and technical assistance representing the rest. (Less than 1%)

2 IJG: Investment for jobs and growth goal 

The distribution of the funds in this goal is the following:

ERDF and ESF+ combined represent 85%, the Cohesion Fund 10% while the JTF represents the remaining 5%.

A point to take into account during the 2021-2027 Cohesion policy legislation, is that it allows transfers from the initial national allocations between EU funds and between categories of regions. These transfers can be decided during the approval of the Member States partnership agreements, or the approval and amendment of national and regional programmes.

IJG Categories for region

Under the 2021-2027 IJG goal, the funding under ERDF/ESF+ is focused per regional category.  The 240 NUTS 2 regions in the EU-27 have been designated as less developed, transition or more developed.

Most of the Eastern and Southwestern European regions appear as less developed whereas Central-North European regions are more developed. The country allocations will be directly affected by the regions categories, distributing the funds depending on the diverse levels of development and geography.

3. Goal: European Territorial Cooperation – Interreg

The aggregate Interreg initial allocations of EUR 9 billion are by cooperation strand. Initially the allocations to Interreg are calculated by country. After consultation with the Member States, the initial allocations are now allocated to each Interreg programme without national allocations.

The allocations to the specific Interreg programmes were announced in Autumn 2021.

4. EU Initiatives

Furthermore, the Commission has three ongoing initiatives covered by the decision on annual allocations with total financing of EUR 1.2 billion in current prices. The Interregional Innovation Investments, European Urban Initiative and ESF transnational co-operation.

Overall, the 2021-2027 programming period brings new upcoming opportunities and open up primarily funds related to development and growth as well as to reduce disparities between regions.

More news regarding the 2021-2027 programming can be found here.