Brussels, 10/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The chairperson of the EP committee on regional development, Danuta Hübner, welcomed the 5th report on cohesion saying it was a good report on the analytical side with a vision for the future and openness to consultation. What Danuta Hübner finds important is that the proposal clearly shows the Commission understands there are not many policies in the EU that can implement the common EU 2020 strategy, which is the most important strategy for this.
An innovation of the report is conditionality, Hübner says. In this respect, the chairperson hopes conditionality will not be lost in the consultation exercise that has just been launched and also that the sanctions will no longer have a place. She says that, what she does not like and what she disagrees with is precisely the idea of linking macroeconomic performance to, and making it a condition for, financial support from structural and cohesion policies. She affirms that she is against this kind of sanctions. Hübner was, moreover, highly pleased, although she “expected far more”, with the urban dimension in the report and with the possibility of having programmes for groups of towns. (G.B./transl.jl)