Brussels, 23/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - Although the Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities (CAAC) welcomes the recent decision of the Lisbon strategy, it believes that the failures of the past are in danger of being repeated if European cities are not closely consulted on the subject of the strategy. Highlighting the need to provide the cities and regions with an important role at a local level, Paz Felgueroso, CAAC president (Mayor of Gijon and a member of the Committee of the Regions) asks, in a press statement addressed to the European Commission, for assurances after adoption of the guidelines on growth that the development of authentic partnerships guarantee genuine involvement of the cities and regions at all levels of the national reform programmes and their implementation.