Brussels, 13/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following the European Commission's adoption of the 4th Report on Economic and Social Cohesion at the end of May (see EUROPE 9435), on 7 June, Danuta Hübner presented the details to the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Parliament regional development committee (which had already seen the report as a matter of priority at the start of May). The commissioner, expecting comments and criticism from European, regionally and locally elected representatives, said she was expecting much from the Cohesion Forum, to be held in Brussels on 27-28 September, which would bring together some 1,000 political decision-makers to take forward the reflection process and launch the first ideas on the future of the cohesion policy. The debate would continue under the Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies of the EU, Ms Hübner said. She went on to say that “the fifth progress report on economic and social cohesion will draw a first 'bilan' of this debate in Spring 2008”. The consultation process involving all stakeholders will run until the end of January 2008. Thereafter, the commissioner will report to elected representatives on the results of the debate early in 2008. The ideas which come from this discussion will form the basis for the 5th Cohesion Report (2010), which will put the Commission's proposals for the post-2013 cohesion policy on the table, she added.
The report demonstrates clearly the effectiveness of the cohesion policy with regard to reductions in differences between regions, Ms Hübner told the CoR plenary session. The cohesion policy had contributed to GDP growth, she said. Estimates for the period 2004-2013, she said, suggested that the policy would help bring about an increase of around 9% in the Czech Republic and Latvia, 8.5% in Lithuania and Estonia, 6% in Bulgaria and Slovakia, 5.5% in Poland, 3.5% in Greece and 3.1% in Portugal. During the debate, State Secretary of Sachsen-Anhalt Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany) said it was “a question of ensuring that all regions, including the wealthier ones, remain part of the future cohesion policy and that it is appropriately funded”. President of Tuscany Claudio Martini (PES, Italy) said that the cohesion policy was the “condition for proper balanced development in the future,” pointing out that it did not just benefit the poorest countries and regions, but also the donor countries. He also stressed that the policy was not simply a matter of increasing GDP per capita, but was also about the leverage effect on environmental, social and cultural standards. Flo Clucas (ALDE, UK), a member of the Liverpool City Council, said she would like to see a more accessible and less technical version of the commissioner's report, so that CoR members could share the policy's success with “ordinary citizens and ordinary businesses”. Ms Hübner agreed with this idea, and said she would ask her services to prepare a smaller, reader-friendly version. The mayor of Rynek, Witold Krochmal (UEN-EA, Poland) agreed that it was essential to make the policy more visible, and he emphasised that it should also anticipate future challenges that local and regional authorities will have to face in areas like climate change.
The discussions took place in the context of the adoption by the Committee of the CoR's opinion, presented by Alvaro Ancisi, member of the Municipal Council of Ravenna, on the Commission's “Regions for Economic Change” initiative. In this opinion, the CoR called for greater transparency in the implementation of the initiative and asked for the work programmes of those networks that were already operational to be made public, on the internet, for example. In response to the opinion, Ms Hübner urged local and regional authorities to prepare partnerships ready to submit project applications to the INTERREG IVC and URBACT II structural fund programmes, and to work with managing authorities to ensure that networks fit regional operational priorities. (gb)