Brussels, 24/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The sixth OPEN DAYS event will be held in Brussels from 6 to 9 October 2008, and the theme will be “Regions and cities in a challenging world”. Developed by a partnership of the European Commission (DG Regio), the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Parliament (EP) is the largest annual European get-together of cities and regions. 217 regions and cities from 32 countries and some 5,000 regional and local experts (representatives of the private, and financial sectors and civil society) will take part. All 27 EU member states, apart from Luxembourg (Ed: which has yet to give its official response) will be represented, as will Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The countries with the largest representations are France (with 22 partners), Italy and Spain (19), the United Kingdom (18) and Poland (17). The 120 seminars and workshops will concentrate on four themes: (1) innovating regions, (2) sustainable development, (3) cooperation and networking, and (4) looking forward. This sixth edition of the event was presented by Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner and Committee of the Regions President Luc Van den Brande in Brussels on Thursday 24 April.
Speaking to press, Hübner said that the budget review and reflection on the future of the cohesion policy will be highly significant moments in this 2008 event. Consultation has been launched and the conclusions will be presented in the 5th Cohesion report on 17 June. “Cohesion policy must work on challenges facing future generations. It must remain at the centre of the competitiveness and sustainability agenda,” Hübner said. She stated that she was going to present a Green Paper on the concept of territorial cohesion, included in the Lisbon Treaty, to the College of Commissioners two weeks before the opening of OPEN DAYS. This Green Paper, which will be published during the OPEN DAYS, will provide an analysis on the disparities of the European territory at local, regional and national levels, and on territorial specificities. Hübner said she hoped to receive many reactions to the Green Paper from the public during OPEN DAYS. There will, then, be broad public consultation and an informal meeting of Regional Policy Ministers in Strasbourg on 25-26 November, under the French Presidency of the EU. The commissioner also said that her services would discuss the Baltic Sea Strategy which will also feature prominently in the OPEN DAYS. “We are preparing for the Swedish Presidency of the EU in 2009,” she said, adding that “the Northern Dimension framework provides the basis for external aspects of cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. This can be seen as a model for other regions of Europe,” she concluded.
Luc Van den Brande said that the Committee of the Regions gave the “highest importance” to diversity in Europe. “Diversity of partners, diversity of themes, cultural diversity and, this, linguistic diversity, which is democracy”. He announced new partnerships, with the Maghreb, for example, and said he realised how important the new configuration of the regions in Europe was. “A point for consideration: cooperation does not always stop at the formal border. Neighbourhood policy must not be forgotten at global level, but at the local level, we are the wheel that takes things forward!” (G.B.)