On 16 July 2025, the Commission presented its proposal for a multiannual financial framework (MFF). On 3 September 2025, it adopted a second package of sectoral proposals, completing the framework for the EU’s next long-term budget for 2028-2034.
The reform proposed by the Commission for regional policy 2028–2034 directly and profoundly affects the regions and their role as local public authorities. The major impact of the reform on the role of regions is due to the introduction of National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs). These plans will cover cohesion policy, social policy, the common agricultural policy, fisheries and maritime policy, migration, border management and internal security.
According to the Commission, the reform will simplify the current framework, “reducing the number of programming documents from around 540 to 27 national and regional partnership plans and one Interreg plan”[1] . Despite the importance of programming at the territorial level closest to the citizen, this reform will lead to a single plan per Member State that will integrate “…all relevant support measures — whether they concern workers, farmers or fishermen, cities or rural areas, the regional or national level…”[2] . Those which, according to the Commission, “…ensure that EU funding has a much greater impact and is used much more effectively”[3] .
Nevertheless, the Commission itself raises, in a way, the question of the role of the regions by emphasising the need to respect the constitutional rules of the Member States and the principle of subsidiarity. According to the Commission, “the new implementation system will take into account the diversity of Member States by offering them flexibility in drawing up national, sectoral and, where appropriate, regional and territorial chapters, as provided for in the current rules, in line with the constitutional structures and traditions of each Member State. (…) In general, partnerships will be less restrictive in terms of how common objectives are achieved, but more demanding in terms of the results to be achieved, ensuring full compliance with the principle of subsidiarity”[4] .
The question of who should be responsible for implementing European Union law and policies within Member States is not addressed in the Treaties. In other words, there is no mention anywhere of the decentralised authorities of Member States or of the relations between central authorities and regional entities. On the contrary, the Treaties establish the principle of institutional and procedural autonomy, which means that Member States are free to choose, within their national legal systems, the institutions and procedures for implementing European Union law and policies. Because of this principle, which has long been recognised by the Court of Justice , “…where the provisions of the Treaty or regulations confer powers on Member States or impose obligations on them for the purposes of applying [European] law, the question of how the exercise of those powers and the fulfilment of those obligations may be entrusted by the States to specific internal bodies is solely a matter for the constitutional system of each State”[5] . As for procedural autonomy, this implies that European Union law must be implemented in accordance with the forms and procedures of national law[6] . Institutional autonomy guarantees respect for the structure of the Member State with regard to the internal distribution of powers between the different levels of government, particularly in the case of federal or regional States.
The principle of institutional and procedural autonomy also means that the institutions of the European Union cannot interfere in the distribution of powers and internal procedures of Member States. The Commission, which must ensure ‘the application of the Treaties and of the measures adopted by the institutions pursuant thereto’[7] , cannot therefore rule on the distribution of powers and the obligations incumbent on the authorities belonging to the different levels of government.
That said, the fact remains that, by introducing National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs), the Commission has reopened the debate on the role acquired by regional or federal entities.
[1] “Questions and answers on the next long-term budget”, available at the following web address: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/qanda_25_1848
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – A dynamic EU budget for the priorities of the future – The multiannual financial framework 2028-2034, Brussels 16.7.2025, document COM(2025) 570 final, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52025DC0570
[5] Judgment of the Court of Justice of 15 December 1971, International Fruit Company NV and others v Produktschap voor groenten en fruit, Cases 51 to 54/71, ECR p. 1107, paragraph 4.
[6] See the judgment of the Court of Justice of 11 February 1971, Fleisckontor, Case 39/70, ECR p. 49, paragraph 4, in which the Court states that ‘where the implementation of a Community regulation is entrusted to the national authorities, it must be accepted that, in principle, that implementation must be carried out in accordance with the forms and procedures laid down by national law’.
[7] Article 17(1) (formerly Article 155) of the EU Treaty.
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