Brussels, 05/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions welcomes the efforts made by the EU27 after the European Spring Council which ended on Friday 2 March, and which may well mark a turning point in the way the member states implement the 2020 strategy. The president of the CoR, Mercedes Bresso, is particularly pleased to note that the conclusions call for “more precise, operational and measurable commitment” on the part of the member states, particularly as part of their national reform plans, even though up until now, it has been a “bilateral and technocratic exercise performed by national governments and the Commission, without an effective involvement of the other relevant partners, in particular local and regional authorities”, Bresso states. She is now very pleased to note that the conclusions “stress the role of the regions in Europe's growth strategy and set a clear roadmap (…)”
She states that the sub-national levels represented by the local and regional authorities are ready to do their part “exploiting the full potential of the current structural fund programmes, whose objectives are fully consistent with the outlined agenda”. The CoR intends to do its bit and make more intensive use of its EU 2020 monitoring platform (networking the regional and local authorities). (MD/transl.fl)