The infrastructure and appealing living conditions are crucial location factors for businesses. This encompasses not only hard infrastructure like transportation networks, energy supply, and internet access, but also soft factors such as housing, skilled labor, and educational institutions. A lack of infrastructure in these domains presents a location disadvantage, potentially weakening the skilled labor base and overall economic conditions.

Transportation infrastructure needs to be strategically planned, constructed, maintained, and repaired to ensure smooth utilization and efficient networking. Furthermore, businesses in rural areas often lack high-performance digital connectivity, including fibre optic connections directly to premises and mobile network coverage that meet entrepreneurial needs.

The public sector should invest in domains that benefit the overall economy. Of paramount importance are investments in transportation infrastructure, broadband access (including improved mobile data reception), public transport connections, and research as prerequisites for entrepreneurial activity. Adequate funding should be consistently tailored and made available from both national sources and EU structural funds.

A functional, straightforward public administration with consistently implemented e-government, sufficient childcare and care facilities, shopping, leisure and entertainment options, essential service offerings, and adequate healthcare are baseline services that should be available locally to enable trade and industry to attract trainees and skilled workers to decentralized locations in the future. New approaches should be pursued, such as coupling various offerings or leveraging digitalization opportunities.

By combining mobility, logistics, stationary retail, and healthcare offerings based on digitalization, new local supply solutions can be created. When addressing gaps in food supplies, market-suitable solutions should be prioritized. Consideration should be given to the requirement for intermunicipal coordination as well as adhering to the concept of central locations for setting up local supplies and organizing essential services. New establishments should not adversely affect neighboring central supply areas, and comprehensive local supplies (e.g., retail, services, digitalization, etc.) should be taken into account.

Reducing regional disparities should remain the goal of national and European structural policy. Although some successes have been achieved, it is essential to continue working on framework conditions that enable equality of living conditions and location factors. The German Federal Promotion System for structurally weak regions (GFS), and especially the joint task "Improvement of the regional economic structure" with its special leverage effect, should be further developed for the economic catch-up process. Even structurally strong regions undergoing profound structural change should be considered by EU structural policy. Investments should be based on strategic planning in the regions and initiatives by regional stakeholders, with projects expected to generate "European added value." 

In shaping the new funding period from 2028 to 2034, the economy should be involved at an early stage to contribute to the formulation of the fundamental funding objectives and an efficient design of the programmes.

The green and digital transformation, as well as the increasing shortage of skilled labour, present structurally weak regions and increasingly also metropolitan areas with special challenges. In order to continue reducing regional disparities while exploiting the economic potential of these areas, funding policies should be better adapted to the situation of these regions. Likewise, future developments in all areas should also be considered to prevent potential challenges in those regions. This should not be done using a stricter goal system based on fixed sustainability and digital targets, but should instead focus more on regional needs and strengths.

Against this backdrop, the funding of public service projects should also be better facilitated, provided they have an economic connection and thereby specifically strengthen the regional economy. Some businesses believe that introducing new funding criteria for public services requires allocating additional resources. However, these should not be at the expense of direct economic support. 

European structural policy should aim to achieve structural reforms as a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth. Within this framework, public funding can create, maintain, and improve attractive locations.

The objectives of regional policy should take into account the developments of demographic change and structural transformation. The roll-out of programmes in the funding periods should be timed to allow tailored preparation at all levels. Co-financing remains a tool for ensuring sustainable project financing. Macro-economic conditionalities and the linkage of fund allocation to the European Semester can also increase the effectiveness of fund utilisation. However, some companies demand that macro-economic criteria should only be applied as a last resort.

EU funding indicators should be regularly reviewed. The potentially competition-distorting effects of funding policy should be minimised through a technology- and industry-neutral design of funding instruments, such as sufficiently flexible application of rules. Close involvement of the commercial economy in the design of all funds and funding programmes should be ensured to secure high efficiency in the utilisation of resources.

The prioritisation of financial instruments over grants should not be absolute - the starting point should be the situation on the ground. Revolving (i.e., returning) funds should be increasingly utilised, creating incentives for efficient resource use until regional targets are achieved.

Simpler processes are required for applications, retrieval, administration, and auditing of EU funding to streamline EU funding policy. It should be clarified in advance whether funding complies with state aid law provisions. The national implementation of European funding rules should be designed to be comprehensible and simplify processes for businesses. National special rules that go beyond the scope of EU policy should be avoided (see Chapter "Reducing Bureaucracy and Better Regulation").

Overall, companies and business organizations should continue to be closely involved in the development of regional funding concepts. The policy should also utilize existing local structures in the implementation of the programs.

Furthermore, appropriate communication channels should be used to provide targeted information about funding programs to different recipients.

The European Social Fund (ESF+) plays a special role within the EU structural funds as it can also be used for co-financing entrepreneurial efforts and their support for securing skilled personnel. It is in the business interest to be able to use the available funds extensively.