How National and Regional Partnership Plans can support just transition regions in the next MFF

Policy Brief

The European Commission’s proposed 2028-2034 MFF does not renew the Just Transition Fund (JTF), currently under implementation across all EU member states. The just transition objective survives in name, without a ring-fenced budget, guaranteed territorial targeting or the governance requirements that gave the JTF its transformative character. Withdrawing structured public support from transition regions, at this pivotal moment for decarbonisation, threatens the EU’s economic development and cohesion, undermining the social acceptability of the transition and the credibility of the EU’s commitment to leave no one behind.

Despite the discontinuation of the JTF, the National and Regional Partnership Plan (NRPP) framework can ensure that transition regions retain adequate, predictable and institutionally grounded support, contributing to the new MFF’s objectives of competitiveness and resilience.

To do so, it needs to integrate key innovative design features of the JTF, building on what works rather than starting from scratch. Indeed, the JTF represents one of the most significant policy experiments of the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF): a dedicated instrument with a mission-driven intervention logic, designed to accompany the structural transformation of regions dependent on carbon-intensive industries.  

The publication provides concrete and actionable recommendations to improve the NRPP framework and its integration of the just transition.