The Covid-19 pandemic has brought inequality into sharp relief. When it comes to dealing with the virus and with economic recovery, disparities are obvious between richer and poorer countries and between different regions within the same country. This week we speak to Elisa Ferreira, the Commissioner for cohesion policy, a crucial instrument in the EU's toolbox as the bloc tries to bounce back from the crisis. Before joining the von der Leyen Commission, she held senior posts at the Bank of Portugal and in the Portuguese government and also served as an MEP.
On how Europe should try to recover from the crisis, Ferreira says: "We have to relaunch the future. We have to be more cohesive. We cannot leave anybody behind, regardless of where they were born or what region they come from. We have got to be more intelligent, more green and more digital. We now have the hope that we will have the needed funds very soon."
Asked about how cohesion funds are currently being used, she says: "Sometimes people don't know this, but a lot of the masks, ventilators, support to part-time workers, support to small-and-medium-sized companies – all this is being financed by the structural funds and by the national envelopes that were not yet completely allocated to specific projects. We created an exceptional rule so the envelopes can be transferred and they are being transferred. We have about €18 billion that are being spent on emergency actions. These kinds of projects will continue until 2023. We will also financially support reforms in member states such as the renovation of buildings and reform of public administration."
Finally, asked about the mismanagement of EU regional and cohesion funds, with fraud officially accounting for less than one percent of them, the Commissioner insists there is "zero tolerance" for fraud: "We can't generalise about this. And when it does happen, we don't have a relaxed or compromising attitude towards it. We go to the end of the end of all criminal procedures. If we detect fraud, we don't just sit and look at it. No. We go through all the procedures and often, in most cases, we can be reimbursed for that money."
Produced by Mathilde Bénézet, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats
