Brussels, 10/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner in charge of regional development, Johannes Hahn, stated that, “transition regions are the hard-core of the cohesion policy relaunch”. He hopes that the Italian and British governments, as well as others, will be convinced that an intermediary category between the convergence and competitive regions is necessary. Transition regions in Spain, France, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom have got together within a group chaired by Laurent Beauvais, the president of the Lower Normandy Regional Council. On Tuesday 9 October, Beauvais met the European Commissioner for regional development as part of the regional week “Open Days”. He spoke about the possible funding that the regions could expect as part of the multiannual financial framework and said that the coming weeks would prove poignant even though it was necessary, “not to over-dramatise budgetary challenges because the real stakes at play involved the territorial dynamic and economic development”. The European Commissioner is not resigned to accepting budget cuts but recognises that if there are to be cuts they should be proportional and should not affect one region more than any other.
Beauvais also affirmed that the transition regions, “have made a commitment to organising themselves in their respective countries to push forward this project”. He explained that this is a, “development project and an orientation for the territories to develop further synergies and propose new development perspectives to companies and youth.” Hahn explained that the disparities between less developed and more developed regions justified an intermediate and bridging category. He emphasised that to be a transition region was not something for eternity, but something dynamic because at the end of the road these regions must have caught up with the others. He said that the transition status cannot last forever but just a certain time. (MD/trans.fl)