Brussels, 02/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Meeting on 25 February in Brussels under the chairmanship of Michel Delebarre (PES, France), over 100 local and regional politicians from across Europe, who are members of the Committee of the Region's commission for territorial cohesion policy (COTER), discussed their joint requests for the next funding cycle of EU cohesion policy after 2013.
To define the common ground of European's local and regional authorities in the forthcoming strategy and budget negotiations, the Committee of the Regions is preparing a so-called “outlook opinion” on the future of cohesion policy, a press release points out. After a series of grassroots consultations, the rapporteur, Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany), who is the secretary of state for European affairs for the Land of Saxony-Anhalt, presented his first draft of the report to the CoR's COTER commission. The CoR has said that regional and local authorities have submitted nearly 90 amendments, which shows their great interest in the subject. Final adoption of the amended report is foreseen for the CoR plenary session in April. The CoR will thus be the EU's first body to set out an official position on the future of cohesion policy, the latter states.
Michael Schneider said he hoped “we can adopt a concept for the future of cohesion policy that is based on a consistent approach and on a broad consensus”. The rapporteur took the view that “such a powerful vote would allow us to exert our influence in the next stages of the decision-making process. Therefore, in some areas, we still have to find compromise solutions”.
Michel Delebarre highlighted the challenges to be faced by the COTER commission, saying that “the future of cohesion policy will obviously be at the forefront of our concerns. Our main aim must be to secure a political agreement on the methods and objective of this policy before the start of budgetary negotiations”. The former CoR president went on to add: “I believe that we already have a consensus on the need to avoid any form of renationalisation and to adapt industries and employment to the challenges of a more sustainable development model, and on the need for multilevel governance and an approach that is more targeted to the region concerned and to intra-regional disparities”. For further information, see: http://www.cor.europa.eu . (G.B./transl.jl)