The European Commission is considering a major restructuring of one of its oldest departments as President Ursula von der Leyen seeks more direct control over EU spending.
The Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, known as DG REGIO, oversees almost a third of EU spending through the bloc’s cohesion policy — roughly €600 billion of cash designed to help poorer regions.
But DG REGIO could become a casualty of the Commission’s broader effort to reorganize itself around new priorities, including competitiveness, defense and strategic investment, according to nine EU officials and diplomats familiar with the discussions. They were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential plans.
The debate reflects a wider shift in how Brussels manages money. While traditional cohesion funds have been managed jointly by EU governments and regions, during the pandemic the bloc moved to a more centralized model, with national recovery plans negotiated directly between capitals and the Commission.
That model showed the EU could move money faster when spending decisions were controlled more tightly from Brussels, the officials said, adding that the same logic is now shaping talks on the bloc’s next long-term budget.
Von der Leyen has pushed to steer more EU money toward defense and competitiveness. Under two restructuring scenarios now circulating in Brussels, she would gain tighter control over major spending programs, officials said.
One option is the creation of a new super-department, informally dubbed DG INVEST, that would oversee regional and social funds as well as the future competitiveness fund, four officials said.
Such a move would give von der Leyen a chance to reshape a major part of the Commission around her own priorities, one of the officials said: “If you build a structure from scratch, you shape it in your own image.”
A second option would stop short of scrapping DG REGIO outright, given its history and political weight. Instead, it could be merged with the Reform and Investment Task Force, known as SG REFORM, three officials said. SG REFORM manages the EU’s Covid recovery funds and already sits close to von der Leyen through the Secretariat-General.
But Ľubica Karvašová, vice chair of the European Parliament’s REGI Committee, said the ideas were “a failure to understand what cohesion policy is really about.”
Europe’s regions cannot be managed through an overly centralized investment model, Karvašová said. She also warned there would be political resistance if other Commission departments were strengthened at DG REGIO’s expense.
Inside DG REGIO, anxiety is spreading. One official described staff as “an egg in the fridge” — carrying an expiration date — adding that while many officials have already moved elsewhere in the Commission, there is no “panic exodus” yet.
The key moment for any overhaul is likely to be the Commission’s large-scale review, expected by the end of 2026 ahead of the next budget cycle in 2028, officials said.
The expected retirement next year of Director-General Themis Christophidou is also fueling speculation that DG REGIO could be killed off altogether, two Commission officials added.
Source: Politico
