Bordeaux, 04/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - In my opinion, "it would be a mistake to unravel the Common Agricultural Policy or regional policy in the name of subsidiarity", said European Institutional Affairs and Regional Policy Commissioner Michel Barnier in answer to a question on the proposals by Chancellor Schröder on the future of Europe (see EUROPE of 3 May, p.5 and 4 May, pp. 3/4). Mr Barnier said he feared that the call to "decentralise" would in fact be a call to "renationalise". He did, however, recognise that these policies, "the oldest Community policies and the most important financially", can and must evolve and that the "Union must give money in a more decentralised manner, as Chancellor Schröder and the Länder would like.
Regarding the Spanish request to link enlargement negotiations with those on regional policy after 2006, Mr Barnier repeated that the Commission "cannot agree with a link being automatically established" between these two issues. The countries belonging to the EU during the current programming period (2000-2006) "will benefit from that policy", he stressed.