Reims, 16/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of a congress of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), French Liberal Jean-Marie Beaupuy, speaking on Monday 15 September in Reims, called for the official recognition of a new governance of territories.
Mr Beaupuy, who is representative of the Champagne region and chairman of the European Parliament's Intergroup on Urban Policy and Housing as well as joint organiser of the congress, called for a governance charter to be set in place, developed at European level for use in each state and territory. He also said there should be a “guide” providing the means to implement effective governance and a “label” that would be attributed to groups of actors applying territorial governance. According to Mr Beaupuy, these three provisions should be in place within a year. The operation, called the “Reims Appeal” with reference to the meeting held in 1962 in the town between General Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, was launched by Mr Beaupuy after a seminar entitled: “Towards a new governance of territories” for discussing projects, players and methods.
Green Paper on territorial cohesion. The seminar provided an opportunity for European Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner to announce the publication of the Green Paper on territorial cohesion. The document, to be made public on 6 October, will comprise four main sections: - how to define the right level of administrative competence according to the nature of the problem posed; - how to ensure better coordination between sectoral and territorial policies; - how to enlarge the participation of partners in preparing for and implementing European policies; - and how to develop European indicators to analyse territorial trends.
Ms Hübner also spoke of the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), which allows cooperative groupings to implement territorial cooperation cofinanced by the European Union. On this subject, Jan Olbrycht, MEP Poland, recalled the strong resistance of a large majority of member states when the EGTC was set up. “Often, regions are very reticent when states interfere with initiatives and purely regional competences”, he said.
Identity, democracy and efficiency. Other speakers tackled the necessary cooperation between local and regional players. “For this cooperation to work better, we have to enter into a process of momentum”, said Jean-Marie Beaupuy. CEMR General Secretary Jeremy Smith said for his part that good governance should be based on the “identity, democracy, efficiency” triptych. “We want efficient services, but we also want the representation of our town, as well as democracy”, he said. “With the governance concept, it becomes even vaguer”, said Claude Jacquier, Director for Research at the Centre national de recherche scientifique (CNRS). “Who should governance be accountable to?”, he asked. Adeline Hazan, who is mayor of Reims and president of Reims Métropole, said there were two forms of governance: - a formal form and an informal form. As far as the “informal” form is concerned, she gave the example of the intercommunal trade union for cooperation of the town and region of Reims, explaining that “140 municipalities are involved”. Speaking on behalf of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Claude du Granrut said that a forthcoming opinion from the Committee will be on governance and partnership. “This partnership between the various players must become compulsory”, Ms du Granrut said. “Cooperation must be a prerequisite for the granting of Community funds to these structures”, she asserted. Concluding the day's business, the French secretary of state for spatial planning, Hubert Falco, assured Jean-Marie Beaupuy that his “Reims Appeal” would be supported. “We are invited to a real Copernican revolution in decision-making”, he said, going on to hope that the French EU Presidency would provide an opportunity for special attention to be paid to the crossborder territories. He said he was paying “great attention” to the use that the different territories will make of the EGTC. On 25 and 26 November in Marseilles, the informal meeting of European ministers responsible for spatial planning is due to examine the “label” proposal made by Jean-Marie Beaupuy. (L.B.S./transl.jl)