The current financial crisis has challenged the policy-making processes and financial negotiations among the member states of the European Union. The EU multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (MFF) is about to be diminished for the first time. 67 other regulations depend financially on the outcome of the MFF negotiations, including the cohesion package. High level political negotiations occur mainly between the groups of the “Friends of better spending” and the “Cohesion Friends”. In the meantime, the regulations of the Cohesion package are being further negotiated within the Trilogs. According to the EU2020 Strategy and its flagships, the cohesion policy should build synergies with other policies and financial instruments. Ultimately, the MFF targets creating jobs and development. The mechanisms of the European multi-level governance are increasingly oriented towards a better coordinated cooperation of regional actors by requesting the enforcing of the partnership principle, a conduct codex and the common strategic framework. The principles of smart specialization and innovation, and the thematic concentration aim at stronger cooperation and mobilization among actors with similar interests from different levels. This paper looks into how high political negotiations within the Council of the EU and the European Council keep both the regions and the member states in suspense through the amending the regulation proposals of the Commission. The focus is on the contribution of the German Bundesrat and on the cooperation between the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions, before the proposals of the Commission were released and during the current Trilog negotiations. The paper analyzes common elements of the positions of Bundesrat, European Parliament and Committee of the Regions, focusing on the features of transition regions. Moreover, it looks into amendments of common regulation features which affect the role and contribution of regions to European multi-level governance.
