The Commission's fifth Cohesion Report and the strategy for post-2013 cohesion policy

The EU's cohesion policy is designed to reduce disparities between different EU Member States and their regions. Its main tools are the Cohesion Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund.

The tasks and functioning of these funds are defined every seven years under the European financial framework.

The Commission monitors the use of these funds and sets out the results achieved in its Cohesion Report.

In its last report, the Commission also outlined its ideas for reforming the EU's cohesion policy after 2013, focussing on thematic concentration, achieving results and adopting a stronger strategic, place-based approach.

The Greens believe that cohesion policy issues cannot be reduced solely to economic performance, so we think broader indicators should replace the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measuring stick for defining regions' needs.

Cohesion is best served by investment in sustainable projects.

The EU has already financed too many highways and dead-end technologies, e.g. in the waste sector, as well as other expensive prestige projects generating little added value.

In our view, smaller projects with a high level of local involvement can prove far more effective for fostering regional development.

We also want the European Social Fund to play a stronger role in cohesion policy in a bid to combat unemployment, poverty and social exclusion.

The Greens were unable to gain support for the proposal that GDP be replaced by more informative indicators.

We had also hoped to improve the wording with respect to combating climate change and fostering gender mainstreaming.

Furthermore, we were disappointed by the focus on unsustainable transport infrastructure and by the lack of recommendations on local development.

The other groups in Parliament failed to support our positions in any of these domains.