Brussels, 16/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Debate in the plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in Brussels on 11 July, was focused on the future of the cohesion policy. Regional policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner informed the Committee, as she had done recently at the European Parliament regional development committee and the Committee of the Regions (see EUROPE 9435/9445), of the ins and outs of the 4th report on economic and social cohesion. She said she would await the comments and criticisms from the members of the EESC and European, Regional and local elected representatives to take forward the reflection and launch the first ideas on the future of the cohesion policy. For this, Ms Hübner was counting on the cohesion forum, to be held in Brussels on 27-28 September, and in which she called on EESC President Dimitris Dimitriadis to take part.
At the request of the Portuguese presidency of the EU, Ms Hübner is currently drawing up an action plan on territorial cohesion (the territorial agenda was adopted at the informal Council in Leipzig, see EUROPE 9406), which is expected to be adopted at the informal meeting of ministers on territorial planning and regional development in the Azores on 24 November 2007. The Commission has, therefore, sent a questionnaire to member states asking them to set out their vision of territorial cohesion within their own context. This consultation document will form the basis for the 2008 territorial impact progress report. This consultation exercise on the territorial dimension, Ms Hübner said, would focus on the way in which this policy works and the way it ought to work in the future to make it increasingly effective. The consultation period would, she said, end in early 2008, adding that the 2008 report would be the starting point for the cohesion policy. She said that things were at an early stage, and she was awaiting the Committee's opinion, expressing pleasure that the rapporteur appointed was Belgian trade unionist Olivier Derruine. Ms Hübner will soon open an internet site to gather all the responses. The results will be included officially in the progress report on economic and social cohesion to be adopted in the first half of 2008, before the publication of the 5th cohesion report in 2010.
Responding to the various members who spoke during the debate, Ms Hübner said: (1) on the integration of cohesion into other policies (Mario Campi, Various Interests Group, Italy), the Commission had initiated a consultation procedure which should allow the best options to be found; there would be opinions from experts and people on the ground; and “We want to invest to better understand what is happening”; (2) on the implementation of social funds in Poland (Kryzysztof Ostrawski, Employers' Group, Poland), the experience of the first three years after accession had been positive, since all the funds available had been used by Poland; she stressed, however, the need for a balance to be found between the various investments and for sustainable development to be encouraged through partnerships between universities, business and social partners; (3) on the inclusion on economic and territorial cohesion in the future treaty (Olivier Derruine, Employees' Group, Belgium), she had noted his message, which he should also transmit to his national authorities; (4) on the peace process in Northern Ireland (Jane Morrice, Various Interests Group, Northern Ireland), she had been appointed president of a task force launched in June and a representative office was soon to be opened in Brussels; the task force would propose joint actions and would allow reflection on who were to be the Northern Irish representatives on the EESC and the Committee of the Regions; (5) on the Baltic Region (Filip Hamro-Drotz, Employers' Group, Finland), she deplored that the EU member states with a border on the Baltic Sea (like Sweden, for example, do not always ask for the Commission's cooperation; it had to be borne in mind that there was a hinterland, and that the best cooperation was cross-border and transnational.
Welcoming Ms Hübner, EESC President Dimitris Dimitriadis hailed the increased cooperation between the Committee and the Commission, particularly in regional policy. “I believe that the European regions constitute the 'backbone' of their respective regions, as well as the European Union. Moreover, metaphorically speaking, organised civil society is to citizens what the regions are to a country,” Mr Dimitriadis said. (gb)