Brussels, 11/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The members of the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) will hold a meeting with the president of the European Council before the spring European Council to discuss current issues and to prepare the Council. The format will be that of the tripartite meeting with the European social partners. Herman Van Rompuy himself gave this guarantee, addressing the CoR plenary session on Wednesday 11 May. He said he would listen to the observations of local and regional elected representatives and include them in the conclusion proposals which he will put to the European summit.
Thus Van Rompuy made his own the “practical suggestion” from his fellow countryman, former CoR President Luc Van den Brande, of granting the CoR observer status at the Spring European Council. The involvement of the Committee in the preparation of the Council delighted Mercedes Bresso who thanked Van Rompuy for his understanding of the role of the Committee.
Van Rompuy justified this proposal by the very essence of his role which is to be a “gatherer”. For that reason, he said, he had weekly contact with the president of the Commission, meetings virtually monthly with the president of the Eurogroup, every three weeks with the president of the European Parliament (EP), and he even attends the meetings of the EP presidents. So, he went on, working with the Committee of the Regions was part of this role of gatherer and was crucial.
Answering various questioners, Van Rompuy said:
(1) Working on two levels: (a) policy of budgetary consolidation, that is, the return to fiscal balance in the short to medium term. “We need the local, territorial and regional authorities, which account for up to 40% of public spending in some regions. A collective effort is required, that is national, regional and local bodies.” (b) economic growth and it is here that the whole issue of the 2020 strategy takes on its full importance. He said that, in some federal states, no economic growth was possible without the cooperation of the regions. This, he said, was essential, it was constitutionally embedded, it was about a collective effort. As for those countries where there was no federal structure, the territorial pact was a perfectly productive idea, he said.
“We need your members in both cases”: a collective effort was needed to save the European models of social protection and economic dynamism, and to protect the environment as, in the EU 2020 strategy, there was a balance between the social, environmental and economic aspects - therein lay the distinctness.
(2) Mediterranean. Van Rompuy thanked the CoR for its efforts seeking to rebuild the political structures and the societies of the countries of the Mediterranean. There was, he said, a grave lack of local power, of civil society and good governance. With regard to the “migration” chapter, he said that preparation of the spring European Council was progressing in intense fashion with the Hungarian Presidency. He said it would not be an easy European Council. He said it would lay down some acts that would bring tangible results in the JHA Council. He also announced a strengthening of Europe's borders, especially maritime. Illegal immigration was not easy to control, but it was no longer possible to continue with borders as they are at present. (G.B./transl.rt)