Brussels, 23/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Luxembourg minister for the economy and trade, Jeannot Krecké declared to the press that the informal meeting of ministers in charge of regional policy and territorial cohesion of EU25 on 20-21 May in Luxembourg was not a “usual” meeting. He said that this Council, “whose subject was eminently technical, when it would have been desirable to make it more political”, enabled finance and economics ministers to discuss ministers in charge of territorial renewal but “it went well!” declared Mr Krecké, pointing out that candidate countries had taken part in this informal meeting - Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia but also Norway, which was taking part in the ORATE programme (as well as representatives of the EP, EIB, Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee. Krecké warned that, “we did not talk about financial perspectives as requested by the Luxembourg presidency because this debate took place in other Councils. We didn't talk about the financial envelope…if that had been the case we'd have been facing a real Christmas tree! The road ahead is still long but I am still hoping for a solution in June”. He added that “each of them is aware of the consequences that not getting an agreement would lead to”.
Last Friday, the Commission document on strategic orientations for cohesion in the period 2007-13, for which the Commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner, revealed the contents on the day before, to local and regional representatives in Wroclaw (EUROPE 8951), achieved broad consensus between Member States as, as underlined by Jeannot Krecké, “it really does take into account the diversity of the regional situations”. Krecké indicated that Ministers had approved their opportunities for “defining their own priorities, adapted to their individual regional situations, in the framework of strategic orientations” and that some Member States had requested the field of intervention for structural funds to better take into account the social dimensions that, “should not be limited to creating jobs ore developing human resources”. The Minister hoped that this strategic document can orientate “Member States in the elaboration of their national strategic reference frameworks”. He concluded that he hoped that they would all succeed on focusing on what was essential, namely, “taking action to enhance economic, social and territorial cohesion”. Danuta Hübner added that their debates had confirmed that there was no question of “one size fits all” in the next generation of cohesion policy programmes. With regard to the most recent proposals from the Luxembourg presidency on financial perspectives, Hübner referred to “recognition of the presidency's efforts that attempt to reach a delicate balance between political ambitions and budgetary constraints”. However, she added, firmly, that she could not accept a reduction to such a level compared to what was originally proposed by the Commission. The Commissioner, noted, however, that the presidency had maintained the architecture from the Commission's proposal on cohesion policy and had concluded, “the Commission proposal is the best compromise for tackling the needs of the regions in Europe and any compromise close to this proposal would be the best choice!”
On Saturday, ministers discussed the framework document of the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network (ESPON) on the operational contribution of the territorial dimension to the Lisbon/Gothenberg strategy. Jean-Marie Halsdorf, Luxembourg minister for territorial renewal informed the press that the current and future presidencies and the Commission would assume a specific role as driving forces for this process and for ensuring continued monitoring with all Member States. Halsdorf insisted that it this territorial dimension was to succeed, they should have guarantees for a political follow-up between the successive presidencies - the United Kingdom, Austria, Finland and Germany. Danuta Hübner indicated after the discussions that he wanted to add, a fourth priority to the EC strategic orientations for cohesion (EUROPE 8951): territorial dimension and the role of the cities (the three others being the attraction of the regions, innovation and information and communication technology, and the creation of quality jobs). Hübner pointed out that, “today, we have decided to do more for territorial cooperation in Europe. We discussed the impact of sectoral policies and proposed that Member States tackled together urban issues, which are also social questions in Europe”. The Commission noted that ESPON was a useful instrument for territorial cohesion. She stated that thanks to ESPON II they would be able to continue with the ESPON programmes that had already been launched.