Brussels, 09/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 February, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) is organising a Territorial Dialogue 2007 conference in the afternoon on 'Horizon 2010 - Local and Regional Authorities for Growth and Jobs', chaired by the deputy mayor of Dunkerque Michel Delebarre. The Vice-President of the European Commission, Gunter Verheugen (Enterprise and Industry Commissioner) and Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hubner will attend the conference, along with representatives of local and regional authorities. The afternoon will be divided into two sessions.
1) 'The Lisbon Strategy on the ground: how does the local and regional level contribute to the Lisbon goal?' The session will be opened at 14.30 hrs by President Delebarre and Gunter Verheugen will intervene at 14.45 hrs. Other speakers include Dr. Istvan Sértö-Radics, mayor of Uszka and member of the CoR's Lisbon Monitoring Platform (LMP) (ALDE, Hungary), Constance Hanniffy, First Vice-Chair of the CoR's Economic and Social Policy Commission (PPE, Ireland) and member of Offaly County Council. The former mayor of Leipzig, Wolfgang Tiefensee, now German transport, building and urban affairs minister and German federal government delegate for the new Länder, has been invited (tbc)). Specific topics to be discussed include the balance between innovation and cohesion, the role of private funding in the financing of Lisbon-related projects and the involvement of local and regional authorities in the drawing up and implementation of National Reform Programmes (NRPs);
(2) 'Cohesion Policy and the Lisbon Agenda'. Danuta Hübner will speak at 16.05 hrs, followed by Spanish employment and women's affairs minister Juan José Güemes (who is a member of the LMP for Madrid); Portuguese secretary of state for regional development Prof. Rui Nuno Baleiras, and Sir Albert Bore, chair of the CoR's Territorial Cohesion Policy Commission and member of Birmingham City Council (PES, UK). The discussion will focus on improving the management of the Structural Funds in 2007-2013, how to manage the transition period between the two cycles, how earmarking can be adapted to specific regional contexts, and how national and EU territorial cooperation instruments can be effectively used to promote Lisbon policies.
Ivan Zagar, minister for local government and regional policy in Slovenia, and Luc Van den Brande, First Vice-President of the CoR and member of the Flemish Parliament in Belgium (EPP) will speak at the closing session. (gb)