Brussels, 03/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - Meeting for its plenary session on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 November in Brussels under the chairmanship of the deputy mayor of Dunkirk, Michel Delebarre, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted all of the opinions on its agenda, notably those relating to the fourth cohesion report, climate change, satellite navigation applications, health and safety at work, culture in the era of globalisation and ageing well in the information society. On Wednesday, Commissioner Joe Borg (Fisheries) took part in a question-and-answer session on the Blue Paper of the Commission on maritime policy (EUROPE 9553). His colleague Jan Figel (Education, Culture, Youth) spoke as part of the adoption of the opinion by Gerd Harms (PES, Germany) on “culture in a globalising world” and in the video presentation of the European capitals of culture for 2011: Tallinn (Estonia) and Turku (Finland). On Thursday, the Vice-President of the Commission Margot Wallström (Institutional Relations, Communication) presented the 2008 working programme to those taking part in the meeting of structured dialogue with the regional associations (the video- which is available in English, French and German- can be viewed at http: //scic.cec.eu.int/streaming/char/).
Galileo. The opinion of the Czech PES member Petr Osvald (municipal councillor of Plzen) on the Green Paper on satellite navigation applications gave rise to and extremely heated debate. Mr Osvald failed to convince some of his CoR colleagues to give their backing to a commitment on the part of the European Council of 2003 to locate the new GNSS supervisory authority in one of the new Member States of the EU, according to a press release. This gesture was ruled out by one of the amendments, in which certain members of the Committee stressed the fact that the location chosen must be the best location, irrespective of the status of the State in question. Support for the Commission in seeking to ensure that funding for the Galileo system is in place under the current financial perspectives received total consensus on the part of the whole Committee, the press release adds. Lastly, in this opinion, the Committee calls on the Council and the Commission to define a specific and realistic timetable, announcing the date for the Galileo system to enter into service.
Economic and social cohesion. In its unanimous adoption of the opinion by Michaël Schneider (EPP, Germany), Secretary of State for federal and European affairs and plenipotentiary representative of the Land of Saxon-Anhalt to the Federal State, the Committee is asking various questions, including how can regional policy respond to globalisation. In order to do this, the European Commission must do more to highlight the regional and sectorial consequences of globalisation, the CoR states in a press release. On the planning and implementation of the cohesion policy, the Committee calls for the local and regional authorities to be involved more closely.
Health and safety at work. In its adoption of the opinion by Uno Silberg (UEN-EA, Estonia), president of the municipal council of Kose, on the Community strategy 2007-2013 for health and safety at work, the Committee is calling for a structured plan based on standards which are reliable, harmonised and validated by experience on the ground. Why? So that the objective of the European Commission, which consists of reducing by 25% the number of accidents at the workplace in the EU between now and 2012 (an objective subscribed to by the rapporteur), “do not turn into an empty slogan”, a press release notes.
Ageing. The Committee of the Regions adopted the opinion by Risto Koivisto (PES, Finland), president of the regional executive of Tampere, on the action plan of the Commission entitled “Ageing Well in the Information Society”. In the view of the CEO Ah, ageing well is ageing well at work, but also in society and at home. The increasing number of seniors and their problems in accessing information due to generation and technology issues have made the digital divide unsustainable: a strategy of distribution of ICT to all levels of political governance is crucial for European competitiveness, a press release emphasises. It is a question of keeping older people at work longer in a modern professional environment, and continuing to benefit from their skills and experiences, the Committee continues, taking the view that it is a matter of the social responsibility of all of the local and regional authorities of Europe to guarantee older people access to personalised social integration services by many different channels, including the acquisition of ICT, in order to age well together.
For the full results of the session, see http: //http://www.cor.europa.eu (G. B.)