Brussels, 27/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the launch of INTERREG IV C in Lisbon, Portugal, on 21 September, the president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Michel Delebarre, stressed the often underestimated strategic importance of territorial cooperation, describing it in his speech as the practical and local application of the method that has been the success of the European project - joining together to solve together problems facing everyone.
Delebarre said the INTERREG IV C programme was a practical translation of cooperation which bolstered both prosperous regions and less favoured or less developed regions alike. He said that along with the current objectives of improving the effectiveness of regional development projects and improving the EU's economic modernisation, a third objective should be added, namely promoting European integration from below.
Describing the prospects of boosting territorial cooperation that would be provided in his view by adoption of the new treaty, the CoR president said that territorial cohesion could become an objective for the EU as a whole and would probably have to be given financial recognition. This was an opportunity not to be missed by territorial cooperation programmes, he added, noting that INTERREG IV C was the programme most concerned by this because it has the necessary flexibility to cover all types of regions, and is based on the issues highlighted in the 4th Cohesion Report. (gb)