Recital 1

(1) Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provides that, in order to strengthen its economic, social and territorial cohesion, the Union is to aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions or islands, and that particular attention is to be paid to rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition, and regions which suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps. Those regions particularly benefit from cohesion policy. Article 175 TFEU requires the Union to support the achievement of those objectives by the action it takes through the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guidance Section, the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Investment Bank and other instruments. Article 322 TFEU provides the basis for adopting financial rules determining the procedure to be adopted for establishing and implementing the budget and for presenting and auditing accounts, as well as for checks on the responsibility of financial actors.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-28 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.