While politicians in Brussels continue to debate the size and shape of the next EU budget, leaders in Central and Eastern Europe are focusing on how to most effectively use cohesion funds to accelerate the region’s economic development.

Politicians and business leaders on a panel at the Economic Forum in Krynica agreed that to implement a modern and effective cohesion policy, all EU member states would have to pull together as a unified whole. Moreover, professional management and oversight at the local level would have to be stepped up to ensure the funds were put to work more efficiently.

They expressed fears, however, that the ongoing European economic crisis and growing mistrust among member states was not conducive to increased unity – a situation, the panelists agreed, that does not bode well for non-members looking to join the bloc.

Michał Boni, the Polish Minister of Administration and Digitization, said Poland was still drawing lessons from its past experiences with EU cohesion policy.

“The basis must be of well-thought-out and constructed projects. I have the impression that some [projects] in the past were prepared too hastily,” he said.

Leadership issues

The minister also suggested that a new champion of European unity was needed, someone in the image of Robert Schuman, the former Prime Minister of France and President of the European Parliamentary Assembly.

However Mario Baldassarri, chairman of the Finance Committee of Italy’s upper house of parliament, said that it would require a cadre of like-minded European leaders to cope with the growing demands being placed on politicians who call for deeper integration.

Hendrik Bourgeois, vice president, European affairs General Electric, said the single market is a necessary element for improving competitiveness in Europe, as is reducing red tape.

Mr Baldassarri also underlined that the entire European Union in the last 10 years had lost over 1 percent of its GDP, resulting in huge unemployment figures.

In the face of these significant hurdles, panelists agreed that Europe needs well-coordinated and long-term plans to engage its regions both economically and politically, and to improve Europe’s competitiveness.

This, they said, is the most realistic way for Europe to avoid a political and economic collapse, and to prevent itself from becoming marginalized on the global stage.