Brussels, 01/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Mercedes Bresso has pressed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy to take account of the regions and their needs in the conclusions of the spring European Council. In a letter to Van Rompuy on Wednesday 29 February, she calls for the special role of the regions and cities in the successful implementation of national reform programmes and the crucial part they play in the new economic model to be recognised. She would like the Council to adopt country-by-country recommendations on the governance part of the EU 2020 strategy, in order to scrutinise the level of participation of local and regional authorities. In her letter, Bresso underlines the importance of not reducing existing European funding for projects to boost growth and employment in the countries and regions worst affected by the crisis. She is against any extension of macro-economic measures to other structural funds, as the Commission would like, in the next cohesion policy planning period. Bresso is worried to read in the summary report on the implementation of the European semester that measures are necessary to curtail regional and local spending. She awaits the outcome of the Council to see if member states have taken account of CoR demands. (MD/transl.rt)