Brussels, 08/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - In its response to the consultation paper on the EU2020 strategy paper (see EUROPE 10026), the Committee of the Regions (CoR) formulated some general remarks, which were incorporated into the own initiative report, adopted in December, from Christine Chapman (PES, UK), Member of the Welsh Assembly and CoR rapporteur on the future of the growth and jobs strategy. Although formulated before the 15 January deadline for responses to the consultation paper, these remarks form the heart of the CoR position on the said document. No change is expected in the CoR's stance on this issue. The Committee encourages the Barroso II Commission to adopt a new approach not built solely on reclassifying the social and environmental objectives, but one which also makes the policy more inclusive, particularly by taking account of the key role played by local and regional authorities in job creation.
The CoR, still through the Chapman report: - is concerned that the Commission consultation paper fails explicitly to recognise the important role played by local and regional authorities throughout Europe in the realisation of the Lisbon objectives on the ground; - notes that the terms “region” and “regional” occur only four times in the paper, and that, when speaking of the importance of involving the regions, the consultation paper calls on “national parliaments” to take part but does not mention the role of “regional parliaments”: the CoR calls on local and regional authorities to point out to the Commission, in their responses to the consultation document, that this must be altered in the proposal that is to be sent for agreement to the spring summit 2010; - believes that the ambitious objectives of the EU2020 strategy would be much harder to realise without the involvement of the local and regional authorities, especially if access to the EU cohesion fund is restricted after the budget review; - highlights the importance of a Europe-wide cohesion policy, both because of the advantages that the policy brings in support of flexible, targeted initiatives on the ground and from the point of view of governance structures which put local and regional partnerships at the very heart of allocation of funds. It is thus, the Committee says, that the EU has been able to remain in contact with local and regional levels and to bring added value to them. It says that the Commission would do well to listen to this message and take account of the CoR recommendations in order to use this integrating approach if it wants to ensure the greatest possible success of the new strategy. (G.B./transl.rt)