Brussels, 04/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 3 November in Brussels, MEPs from the regional development committee affirmed that the Commission's draft budget reforms could hamper the European Union's regional cohesion objectives. Committee MEPs shared the committee president Danuta Hübner's (EPP, Poland) concerns (EUROPE 10006). Ms Hübner considers that the draft review contradicts the strengthening of the territorial cohesion policy role as contained in the Lisbon Treaty. Lambert Van Nistelrooij (EPP, Netherlands), Elie Hoarau (GUE/NGL, France), François Alfonsi (Greens/EFA, France) and Ramona Manescu (ALDE, Romania) supported Hübner's position. Lena Kolarska-Bobinska (EPP, Poland) underlined that the differences between the regions would grow further with the arrival of new countries in the EU and it was therefore ill advised to abandon the political means that could help reduce these differences. Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany) called for a robust response from the EP by drawing on its full co-decision powers as included in the Lisbon Treaty on this domain. Evgeni Kirilov (S&D, Bulgaria) said that given that the cohesion policy had been a success, that solidarity was guaranteed and that there was a more coherent EU, there was no need to change anything at all. Ivars Godmanis (ALDE, Latvia), stated that the Commission's draft asks whether the EU itself should decide if the money should be spent to enable the regions to be on an equal footing or to enhance its competitiveness potential on the world scene. François Alfonsi said that regional policies had to be tackled together with regional disparities and sectoral policies. John Bufton (EFD, United Kingdom) expressed dismay that the EU regional development committee had been left in the dark about the Commission's plan and called on President Barroso to provide an explanation. Philip Bradbourn (ECR, United Kingdom) said although he was in favour of re-nationalisation of cohesion policy, it was strange that so radical a change be proposed by the outgoing Commission. Finally, French MEPs (EPP), Sophie Briard-Auconie and Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid, called on the European Commission to position itself clearly on this text, whose real scope is not yet known.
Local and regional associations against any “renationalisation” of cohesion policy
Seven organisations representing the local and regional authorities in Europe addressed a letter to the European Parliament on Tuesday 3 November, expressing their concerns about the European Commission's draft communication on “reforming the budget, changing Europe”. The regional and local associations declare that these proposals do not reflect the territorial cohesion objective as included in the Lisbon Treaty. They are dismayed that the draft document does not sufficiently reflect the inclusion and social cohesion objectives, and have concerns about the ideas expressed in the document that call for a regional policy that has “more focus on the poorest member states”, which suggests a tendency towards re-nationalisation and sectoral reorganisation of European policies. The seven signatory associations to the letter are the Assembly of the Regions (ARE), the Conference of European Regions with Legislative Power (REGLEG), the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), the Council of the European Municipal Regions (CEMR), EUROCITIES and the European Association for Mountain Areas (EAM). (G.B./L.C./transl.rh)