Brussels, 17/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - Coordinated by the Basque Country, the Spanish Autonomous Communities have set out their position on the review of the EU budget, a position which they have sent to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The Autonomous Communities say inter alia that (1) the EU budget must be ambitious; (2) in terms of its charting and implementation, European cohesion policy must in future retain its regional approach; (3) the cohesion policy must make a bigger financial effort for the less developed regions, while remaining a policy with a presence in all EU regions to help all those regions take up certain particularly important challenges. They also share a vision of the EU concentrating on certain priorities, such as those set out in the Commission's report on challenges for the region in 2020: globalisation, demographic challenges, energy supply and efficiency, and climate change. They add that cohesion policy is an indispensible instrument for tackling these challenges effectively. For information, go to: http://www.euskadi.net/europa (G.B./transl.rt)