Brussels, 27/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - During the presentation of the work published by the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) in Brussels, “Objectif 2009: un grand pas pour l'Europe, un petit pas pour les regions”, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner noted that “this book proposes new approaches, new ideas”, which she fully shares. “This publication is a manifesto which gives a vision of an ambitious and fair Europe which is close to its citizens. This is the CPMR's contribution to the regional policy, which she fully supports”, said the President of the CPMR and of the Region of Tuscany, Claudio Martini.
In her speech, Danuta Hübner stressed five messages: 1) Europe needs more of a cohesion policy more than ever, due to enlargement and globalisation; 2) the EU has long been suffering from a lack of dynamism and competitiveness on the global markets, and to resolve this, we must in particular exploit the potential of the regions; 3) a major challenge will be the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty, which includes the territorial dimension, “which is important for you”; 4) the cohesion policy is more than just a redistribution of financial resources, but also and especially means investment in human capital, technologies, innovation, the information society with a view to modernising the European economy, to promote growth and sustainability; 5) the road ahead is a long one. The Commission is soon to launch a consultation with the Member States and all interested parties, including the European Parliament, on drawing up strategic guidelines for the cohesion policy, announced the Commissioner.
In their contributions, representatives of the regions of the net contributor countries to the EU budget cited examples of positive contributions of the EU regional policy in their regions. Roland Andersonn (Vastragotaland, Sweden) spoke of his country's commitment to the European cohesion policy: structural funds have enabled the creation of over 8,000 new jobs and over 2,000 companies in our regions, he explained. However, he asked for more attention to be paid to relations with the cities “which are the driving forces behind growth for the regions”. “The Dutch government is one of the strongest opponents of the Commission's proposals on the financial perspectives 2007-2013. This official point of view has not changes, but we are discussing it with our ministers” said Pit Bijman (Frysland, Netherlands).
In her answers, Danuta Hübner said that the Kok report had not gone into enough detail on the importance of the Lisbon Strategy for the regions, or suggested enough concrete instruments. Ms Hübner announced that as part of the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy, the Commission was to hold a conference in Brussels on 3 March, on “Cohesion and the Lisbon Strategy: the role of the regions”, to be attended by the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, and of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, and leaders of local authorities.