Brussels, 15/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In presenting the 4th cohesion report, adopted by the Commission on 31 May (see EUROPE 9435), to the Political Bureau of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime regions in Augustow (Poland) on 8 June, Director General of the European Commission's DG Regional Policy Dirk Ahner put the emphasis on convergence - which, he said, was occurring “between member states and between regions”, and he described this trend as “encouraging” - and globalisation.
Speaking about challenges for the future, he said that “globalisation with its competitive pressures will continue to be a major issue”. “Notwithstanding impressive growth rates over the past decades, a number of regions still have economic structures concentrated on sectors where competition from emerging third country economies, like China, Brazil or India, is particularly strong,” he said, adding that many regions in Europe would be increasingly faced with the impact of demographic and climate change, and new challenges in energy provision and efficiency. But what, Mr Ahner wondered, about the future when these challenges became ever more pressing? Did we need a new, a different policy, a new doctrine for regional development and regional policy? “To be honest, I have no ready made answer today. A good regional policy post-2013 is a policy that is able to give a convincing response to the problems our regions will face in 2020. We shall therefore examine carefully the heavy trends which will influence, to a large extent, the economic and social developments of the next decades. And we shall examine how they may, and probably will, affect the regional development of the EU, in our neighbourhood and worldwide. In other words: how will the challenges I mentioned, some of which are of a global nature, impact on the different regional economies of Europe? What critical competences will regions need in order to maintain or improve their positions in the global game? Once we have a clearer view, then we can speak about the policy,” Mr Ahner said. He went on, in conclusion: “We shall also have to ask ourselves what we consider to be the optimum division of responsibility between the EU, national, regional and local levels within a multi-level governance system. And what is our assessment of the management system of cohesion policy after four generations of programmes? How can the policy become more effective and more efficient?” (gb)