Brussels, 09/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The go-ahead for a regional week-long marathon was launched on Monday 8 October during the opening ceremony of the Open Days at the European Parliament. Leaders from the EU institutions all spoke in turn to demonstrate their support for regional development and to underline the urgent importance of pooling their forces to ensure a budget for cohesion policy. During the whole week, Brussels will be focusing on regional matters and holding numerous workshops on the challenges facing the local authorities.
Addressing a full house of regional representatives at the European Parliament, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, sent out the first urgent message: there are just a few weeks left before the Special European Council (22-23 November) that has been organised to ensure that the EU 27 reaches an agreement on the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020. If no agreement is reached in November, this will mean a setback for growth and job creation, warned the president of the European Council. While the clock is ticking, it is necessary to use the time left advisedly. This particularly meant organising to prevent cuts to the cohesion policy budget, he explained.
President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz put his cards on the table and asserted that, “cuts can be sometimes popular but, as the European Parliament has stated, they are irresponsible at a time when some member states are slipping into recession and poverty is on the rise, a time when we need to say yes to solidarity and targeted growth investments”. Schulz also pointed out that, “EU budget compliments national budgets and cuts to EU budget are not appropriate as the money is for investments in Europe…Europe's regions and cities need EU money now more than ever - as a true instrument for investment for growth and jobs”.
Danuta Hübner, the president of the regional development Parliamentary committee, said that the budget for cohesion policy in the next financial framework meant an investment plan for Europe in 2014-2020. She has been defending an appropriate budget this policy for a long time. In a similar vein, her successor at the Commission, Johannes Hahn, responsible for regional development, warned that no region had a guarantee for prosperity and that cohesion policy needed to be capable of investing in all Europe's regions.
In an allusion to the opponents of cohesion policy, the president of the Committee of the Regions, Ramon Valcarcel Siso, also said that this policy was a superlative instrument for filling the breaches currently opening up in Europe and which needed to be filled to prevent this fracture developing further.
Commissioner Hahn emphasised that he had developed a new mentality with regard to cohesion, through a package that reformed this policy and which had been presented in 2011. He explained that all the elements were in place, “to put European cohesion policy, at the heart of EU action for growth”, particularly through conditionality, thematic concentration and a results oriented approach. He stressed that they now needed to, “kick the ball over the goal line! That means that we have to deliver on our promises”. He concluded by expressing his hope that the Open Days week would demonstrate that they needed this European budget.
Initiatives to this end will significantly increase until 11 October. Activities within the context of this special week will also affect areas involving the local authorities, such as sustainable development, the social chapter, urban development and cooperation. (MD)