Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Change 1

RemovedD. whereas many of the poorest and most vulnerable regions are located in the eastern part of the EU; whereas the war in Ukraine has an additional negative impact on these regions;E. whereas the physical disconnection and isolation of islands from the mainland constitutes a permanent structural disadvantage that affects multiple aspects of economic and social life, including access to the labour market, education, healthcare, mobility and public services; whereas the limited territory of islands significantly restricts opportunities for professional upskilling and reskilling, thereby limiting workers’ ability to adapt to structural changes or sectoral shifts, such as those driven by the green and digital transitions; whereas, in many cases, this lack of alternatives forces workers to leave their home regions in order to access employment opportunities elsewhere, effectively undermining their ‘right to stay’ and contributing to depopulation and brain drain in insular territories;

AddedD. whereas many of the poorest and most vulnerable regions are located in the eastern part of the EU; whereas the war in Ukraine has an additional negative impact on these regions;

AddedE. whereas the physical disconnection and isolation of islands from the mainland constitutes a permanent structural disadvantage that affects multiple aspects of economic and social life, including access to the labour market, education, healthcare, mobility and public services; whereas the limited territory of islands significantly restricts opportunities for professional upskilling and reskilling, thereby limiting workers’ ability to adapt to structural changes or sectoral shifts, such as those driven by the green and digital transitions; whereas, in many cases, this lack of alternatives forces workers to leave their home regions in order to access employment opportunities elsewhere, effectively undermining their ‘right to stay’ and contributing to depopulation and brain drain in insular territories;

Change 2

ChangedK. whereas tourism is a key sector of the EU’s economy, directly and indirectly contributing to over 10 % of the EU’s GDP, and plays a vital role in enhancing competitiveness, social well-being and sustainable job creation, particularly in regions heavily reliant on tourism; whereas tourism has the potential to contribute significantly to territorial cohesion, particularly in remote, rural, coastal, outermost and island regions, and can support economic diversification and just transition in areas facing structural challenges, population decline, or dependency on carbon-intensive industries; whereas the EU’s tourism industry, largely composed of 2.32,3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), employs approximately 12.312,3 million people and represents a major economic activity with strong multiplier effects across various sectors; whereas cohesion policy should support sustainable tourism strategies as part of the just transition, fostering resilience, innovation and green and digital transformation in the tourism sector, while promoting inclusive growth and preserving cultural and natural heritage;

Change 3

Changed45. Calls for special consideration to be given to the need to promote electricity connections, to increasing grid hosting capacity and to strengthening energy storage systems, as necessary components of an effective energy transition; calls on the Commission to encourage the Member States to fully implement the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/9942019/944 related to citizen energy communities, providing specific measures to protect vulnerable households from energy poverty in JTF regions; believes, in this context, that support should be given to local community-led green infrastructure and renewable energy projects, such as solar, wind and hydropower installations, as well as sustainable transportation, which stimulate local economies, offering great potential for the creation of local jobs in construction, engineering, maintenance and related industries;

Change 4

Changed49. CallsRegrets onthat the Commission tohas proposenot proposed a newstand-alone fund,Just Transition Fund (JTF) in its recent proposals on the future multiannual financial framework (MFF); calls therefore for the continuation of the JTF through a JTF ‘II’, for the post-2027 programming period so as to provide direct support for households and communities to transition, and to enable an intervention capacity commensurate with the scale of the socio-economicsocio-economic, employment, demographic and environmental impacts of the transition towards the EU’s 2030 energy targets; stresses that this fund should operate under shared management and partnership principles, within the framework of cohesion policy, and stresses that it should have its own predictable budget allocation, ensuring its autonomy from extraordinary crisis response instruments, such as NextGenerationEU;

Change 5

Changed5252. Believes that the good governance framework is key in implementing the just transition; underlines that local and regional authorities play a pivotal role in ensuring the effective design, implementation and monitoring of EU programmes, given their proximity to citizens and deep understanding of territorial needs; highlights the importance of upholding the partnership principle and the European code of conduct on partnership, and of emphasising the place-based approach, to ensure the full participation of local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society organisations in the governance, selection and monitoring of funded projects, in line with the multilevel governance principle laid down in Regulation (EU) 2021/1060;