This webinar took place successfully on 22.1.2026 with some 60 active participants. We provide below a summary of the presentations and discussion, as well as the full recording of the event and the introductory presentation.
Follow-up debate on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework – 22 January 2026
LDnet Webinar – The debate on how the next MFF can evolve in 2026
The fourth webinar of the LDnet series on “A new architecture of EU policies and funds post-2027 – what place for local development?” was an opportunity to reflect and exchange on how the proposals published by the European Commission in July 2025 can be improved to capitalise on the rich experience of EU territorial tools and to ensure a strong role for local communities.
Following a short introduction by the LDnet Chair Peter Ramsden and a recapitulation of key points from previous webinars of the series by Serafin Pazos Vidal and Urszula Budzich-Tabor, the discussion, facilitated by Pedro Brosei, focused on the following questions:
– What are the opportunities and challenges for local communities of the MFF proposals published in July?
– What are the key points around which the policy debate should focus in 2026, and what specific changes should be advocated from a local perspective?
– Who can be potential allies of local development stakeholders in this debate?
The discussants raised the following opportunities and – more frequently – challenges of the proposals for local communities:
– The introduction of a single Fund and single Plan at national level seems to respond to the criticism of the current system, which was slow to react to emergencies and had a tendency to create policy silos. Moreover, the proposed system is in line with the expectations of many national governments, who would like to have more flexibility and autonomy to change priorities during the programme period.
– On the other hand, there are concerns that the new system will destroy the current, well-established architecture of Cohesion Policy, and could lead to an almost complete exclusion of the local level in decision-making (in a similar way as happened with the Recovery and Resilience Fund). Local and regional governments are likely to be marginalised and it is not clear that the integrated territorial tools such as ITIs or CLLD and bottom-up approaches will continue to play a role.
– Some people fear that the system will create extreme difficulties in governance and will end-up in a centralisation of powers at national level. A similar centralisation process – on a smaller scale – took place when rural development programmes for the 2023-2027 period were designed, and it has resulted in some MS in highly complex programmes without a real strategic focus.
– In theory, the new proposals allow for a stronger territorial approach (with the possibility of dedicated territorial chapters in the National and Regional Partnership Plans) and safeguard a focus on rural development (with a minimum 10% spending target), but in view of the vague formulation of the legislation, it is not clear how this will translate into practice at MS level.
In addition to the above concerns, which should find their way into the policy debate in 2026, the discussion showed that local stakeholders should focus on a small number of concrete proposals of changes. For example, in parallel with the minimum 10% for rural development (which risks to repeat the traditional EAFRD funding focused largely on agriculture), perhaps it would be possible to argue for a minimum 10% for territorial development in both rural and urban areas. A stronger mechanism allowing the EC to check genuine involvement of regional and local levels would need to be developed. Attention should also be paid to improving the performance framework legislation. Rural proofing should contribute to a more knowledge and data based design of rural policies within the new integrated architecture.
It will however be important to join forces: local and territorial stakeholders should work together with different rural, urban and regional organisations (including the European Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, the different parliamentary groups of the European Parliament, as well as EUROCITIES, the Cohesion Alliance, the European Rural Parliament, ARC 2020, Ecolise, Euromontana and others). It will be more important to advocate for a small number of improvements jointly than for each stakeholder group to try and formulate the proposals most adapted to their interests.
In closing remarks, Peter Ramsden stressed that centralisation of policies and funding at the national level means a risk of marginalisation for local communities and innovative governance mechanisms. To avoid this, stakeholders in favour of local and territorial approaches should act quickly to ensure these approaches are not lost in the post-2027 legislative proposals.
The full recording of the webinar is available HERE.
For the introductory presentation click below.
For the background and agenda of this event see below.
LDnet Webinar – The debate on how the next MFF can evolve in 2026
The last event of LDnet 2025 webinar series, which took place on 4.12.2025, was titled “In what direction can the next MFF evolve in 2026?”. The webinar was a great success (see the summary, full recording and speakers’ presentations HERE) but due to limited time it wasn’t possible to take on board all the questions and ideas of the discussants. Participants have expressed a keen interest in continuing the discussion on the challenges ahead.
A follow-up event that will aim for maximum involvement from participants is planned for Thursday 22 January, 16:30 – 18:00 CET. It will be an opportunity to exchange on how the Commission’s proposals should be improved to capitalise on the rich experience of EU territorial tools and to ensure a strong role for local communities.
To register click HERE.
The draft agenda of the event is:
16.30 – 16.35 Welcoming words by LDnet Chair, Peter Ramsden
16.35 – 16.45 Short recapitulation of the previous webinar’s key points (Serafin Pazos Vidal and Urszula Budzich-Tabor)
16.45 – 17.50 Discussion moderated by Pedro Brosei and Urszula Budzich-Tabor, focusing on the following questions:
– What are the opportunities and challenges for local communities of the MFF proposals published in July?
– What are the key points around which the policy debate should focus in 2026, and what specific changes should be advocated from a local perspective?
– Who can be potential allies of local development stakeholders in this debate?
17.50 – 18.00 Closing comments by Peter Ramsden
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