Brussels, 23/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's draft budget review is continuing to provoke criticism from representatives from the European regions (EUROPE 10004). Following the president of the Association of French Regions (ARF)Alain Rousset, the president of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), Michèle Sabban, addressed a letter of protest to José Manuel Barroso on Friday 23 October. In this letter the question of the regions' trust was raised “in a Commission planning to bring regional policy back to when it was first implemented” , when in fact the 2007-13 only began last year/ Ms Sabban also deplores the fact that, “this draft review appears to involve de facto re-nationalisation of cohesion policy”, which would be mistaken. At a time when local and regional authorities are expecting an extension, via the Lisbon treaty, of the subsidiarity principle to infra-national levels, together with the affirmation of multi-level governance, the Commission appears prepared to undermine these provisions by concentrating on national convergence “. Ms Sabban affirmed that the proposal to increase resources allocated to less advanced member states rather than to the regions would, “particularly diffuse a culture of centralised and sectoral decision-making to the detriment of the real objective, territorial cohesion. The consequences of such an approach are the equivalent of a two-speed Europe, which would be discriminatory and indeed, disastrous”.(G.B.)