Brussels, 15/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of their last plenary session of the year, on 16 and 17 November, the members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) questioned President José Manuel Barroso and the vice-president responsible for institutional relations and communication strategy, Margot Wallström, on the need to add the concept of “decentralisation” to Plan D, Democracy, Dialogue, Debate (see among others: EUROPE 9071). Europe is not a best-seller with citizens, mainly because of over-use of Community jargon and an image that is “too grey”, Paulo Rocha Trinidade from the Committee's press service, said. Reacting to this, the CoR presidency expressed its resolve to improve communication on Europe and to mobilise local and regional authorities, with decentralisation of the debate. Communication has thus become a priority for the Committee of the Regions, as it is for the Economic and Social Committee, moreover (a theme that appears on the agenda of its plenary session on 15 and 16 December).
In order to give concrete substance to this commitment, the members of the CoR committee on constitutional affairs appointed Mercedes Bresso as rapporteur for opinion on the “Plan D, Democracy, Dialogue and Debate” and on the “White Paper on information and communication policy”. Former MEP Mercedes Bresso, of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), is president of the Piedmont region and of the PES Group at the Committee (the latter designation is to be confirmed during the meeting of the Group on 3 February 2006), and will thus succeed the current Group president, Michel Delebarre, who is expected to be elected to the Committee presidency during the February plenary session, replacing Peter Straub whose mandate will be coming to an end. On the occasion of her appointment as rapporteur, Mercedes Bresso recalled that “we are in a listening phase. Reflection does not mean conclusion and discussion is therefore needed to determine what European project we want”. The Committee of the Regions trusts that the EU will adopt a new bottom-up approach that will allow citizens to be involved and strengthen their feeling of belonging to Europe, she said.
As the Committee of the Regions is also an activator of networks and in this framework has close relations with the Europe Direct network at the Commission, a conference on Plan D will be organised on 25 January in Brussels to allow the various members of these networks to exchange experiences on this subject.