Brussels, 16/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - According to information which has been described as "reliable" by the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), the British government hopes to present a new "negotiating box" for regional policy, which has been somewhat scaled down from the proposal put forward by the Luxembourg Presidency. This is of serious concern to the representatives of the peripheral Maritime regions. In their attempts to get on top of the EU budget, the British are thought to have their eye on the budgets the Commission proposed to devote to regional policy (heading 1b), and particularly the future "regional competitiveness and employment" objectives (57.9 billion EUR). According to the same rumours, the option of removing the "regional competitiveness and employment" budgetary line, moving it only partially into heading 1a, is being looked into between the UK Presidency and the Presidency of the Commission. The German government is believed not to be opposed to this idea. All of this would mean continuing to help the poorest regions (conversion objective) and getting rid of the link which exists between all the other regions and the Community scale.
This information has pledged to a reaction on the part of the CPMR. Its director for cohesion, Philippe Cicholawz, states that the CPMR "does not dare to believe in this theory, which would mean the end of the participation of all of the regions in the Lisbon and Gothenburg objectives". He added: "this would spell the end of a European political ambition. I hope that the Commission will turn a deaf ear to Tony Blair's proposal". The President of the CPMR, Claudio Martini, will discuss this crucial issue at his meeting with President Barroso in Brussels on 11 October, ahead of the proposals the UK Presidency is expected to make in early November.