Brussels, 04/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The conference on cohesion and the Lisbon strategy held on 3 March in Brussels confirmed the need for adequate financing for cohesion policy and the risks involved in renationalising regional policy. As Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hübner said, the message is that “the regions need Lisbon for growth and employment”, and “there is no cohesion without competitiveness and no competitiveness without cohesion”.
“Cohesion policy will enrich Lisbon. The regions need Lisbon and Lisbon needs the regions”, declared President Barroso at the opening, encouraging the representatives of the regions “to be active ambassadors for Lisbon” at home. Mr Barroso, in whose view “the Lisbon strategy must take advantage of regional dynamism”, believes that “local and regional elected authorities understand better the link between cohesion - economic, social, territorial - and competitiveness”. “Now we need to translate this into the Community debate”, he said, adding that “the inter-governmental approach is a mistake, the Community approach is the right one”, and that “the debate cannot be left solely to the national governments”. The value added of Lisbon is “to put the economy at the top of the European political agenda”, Danuta Hübner continued, recalling that almost 80 billion euros have been invested in the Lisbon strategy since 2000, particularly in developing human resources, research, technologies, innovation and support for SMEs. On behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency, Nicolas Schmit highlighted the role of the regions in delivering the Lisbon strategy and acknowledged the close link between Lisbon, cohesion policy and the financial perspectives. “Our objective is to create a positive dynamic following the March Summit”, said Mr Schmit, adding that “if Europe wants to be credible to its citizens (…), it must not fail in the financial planning” of its policies.
Responding to the presidents of the regions, Danuta Hübner raised the following issues: 1) the choice between traditional cohesion policy and competitiveness (Vicente Alavarez Areces, Asturias, Spain): 'There has not been such a choice. We don't have the time to do one thing, then do another. Cohesion and traditional objectives have to be combined'; 2) renationalising regional policy (various speakers, including Harry Dijksma, Flevoland/NL, member of the Committee of the Regions): 'We all oppose renationalisation of regional policy because this would mean killing off the spirit of the Treaty and that would undermine everything that has been created and that forms the basis of cohesion policy in Europe. It is vital for Europe'; 3) partnerships between, for example, the social partners (Jozef Niemiec, Confederate Secretary of the ETUC/European trade unions): 'Partnership is one of the applications of the success of regional policy'; 4) new challenges arising from enlargement (Josef Martinz, regional minister for Carinthia in Austria): 'Innovation is the new challenge that has to be met - in the context of state aid, it is vital'.
The local, regional and urban levels are indispensable for mobilising European citizens, concluded Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for transport policy. During the debate, the President of the Committee of the Regions, Peter Straub, stressed that the EU should scrap all administrative constraints and encourage entrepreneurship, especially in young people. He said the Lisbon objectives were too broad, were composed of too many programmes and were too vague. Jacques Barrot reassured Miguel Angel Palacio Garcia (Vice-President of the European association of elected officers of mountainous regions) that the Commission was paying full attention to mountainous regions, adding that Michel Barnier (former Regional Affairs Commissioner) and himself had introduced into programmes the possibility of increasing the intensity of aid for mountainous regions. The President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), Claudio Martini, said Europe should not be regionalised, but the regions should be Europeanised - the regions in Brussels and Brussels in the regions.
State aid policy in the regions
How can the state aid policy stimulate innovation in the regions? Answering this question, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes stressed coherence between state aid policies and cohesion policy, on which she was working closely with Danuta Hübner, she explained. After presentations about innovation in Saxony (Germany) and Finland, the participants focussed on the question of state aid for the regions. Claudio Martini showed the audience a map of the territories of the EU whose aid capacity for business would rise, drawing Ms Kroes' attention to the dangers of radical reform of the state aid system for the regions. The impact of such reform, he said, would reduce the capacity to aid struggling small businesses, and this would go against the challenges everyone had to face together (and also against the principle of territorial cohesion). The Secretary General of CPMR, Xavier Gizard, hoped to examine the reform with Commissioner Kroes, which Ms Kroes immediately accepted. Neelie Kroes said that the new proposal meant there was the possibility of horizontal aid. I am aware, she said, of the importance of state aid for innovation, R&D and SMEs. We should concentrate on a type of aid involving a centre of experience combining enterprise and innovation poles and/or agencies, concluded Ms Kroes.