Brussels, 03/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - A few days ahead of the European Summit of the Regions and Cities of Europe in Wroclaw on 19 and 20 May (see EUROPE 8936), the President of the Committee of the Regions, Peter Straub, has appealed for a decision to be reached in June on the cohesion policy, “a decision which we cannot fail on”. With decentralisation the central subject of the Summit's work, Peter Straub pleaded for “our local and regional authorities to be given the means to be strong and efficient, because decentralisation is the best guarantee for growth and employment”. The presidents and mayors travelling to Wroclaw “understand better than anyone the needs of their communities”, as they are “in direct contact with them” and, as “local and regional authorities are the driving forces behind growth and innovation in Europe, we need them firing on all cylinders”.
Among the 300 or so taking part in the Summit are the mayors of Leipzig, Wolfgang Tiefensee, of Strasbourg, Fabienne Keller, of Florence, Leonardo Domenici, of Athens, Theodora Bakogianni, of Prague, Pavel Bem, of Budapest, Gabor Demszky, of Copenhagen, Lars Engberg, of Nicosia, Michalakis Zampelas, and the president of the government of the Basque country, Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu and the president of the Sejm (Poland), Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.