Extraordinary EU Support for Eastern Border Regions

The amended cohesion regulation devotes particular attention to the Union’s eastern border regions neighbouring Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Recital (7) recognises their “unique security challenges and geopolitical significance” and states that reinforcing local defence capabilities and civil preparedness in these areas is “essential not only to deter external aggression and safeguard European security, but also to support regional development, social cohesion, employment and living conditions.” This marks a shift in the rationale for cohesion funding: border regions are no longer treated solely as disadvantaged territories requiring economic convergence, but as strategic buffers whose resilience is a matter of collective security. The decision to prioritise these areas explicitly links cohesion with geopolitics, embedding territorial solidarity in the Union’s broader security architecture. By naming these border regions directly, the regulation signals that geography and proximity to external threats have become criteria for resource allocation, a precedent-setting development in cohesion policy.