Brussels, 17/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - For the last time during the present legislature, the regional development committee of the European Parliament met in Brussels, on Thursday 16 April, under the chairmanship of Evgeni Kirilov (PES, Bulgaria) to take stock of progress made in cohesion policy during this period and to see what challenges this policy would have to face in the future. Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner and President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) Luc Van den Brande, whose excellent teamwork has been recognised by all, were invited to speak of what has been achieved.
Apologising for the fact that the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Gerardo Galeote (EPP-ED, Spain), could not be at the meeting as he was retained in Madrid for an extraordinary meeting of his political group, Evgueni Kirilov passed on Galeote's message, thanking everyone for work accomplished and wishing them well for their future activities. He also thanked Danuta Hübner and Luc Van den Brande for their “excellent cooperation” and noted that ties between the various institutions have become “visibly closer during this legislature”.
Danuta Hübner presented the major areas of work in which the Commission has made a contribution. She spoke of: (1) the fact that emphasis has been placed on competitiveness in all regions of the European Union faced with restructuring, but above all in the poorest regions; (2) the integration of new member states into the political systems, which has greatly helped development of the regions; and (3) the fact that territorial cooperation should be stepped up. “Territorial and regional cooperation has become a concerted objective”, the commissioner said. As far as the crisis is concerned, Ms Hübner said: “The political framework, the content, the priorities and the way in which things have been managed in the past have allowed us to provide a better response now, in that this crisis gives us the opportunity to move forward. The challenge for us, is to ensure that everything is in place, and opportunities must be used to advantage by the states and the regions. This is an important instrument for economic recovery”.
Hübner will inform regional development ministers of the outcome of the consultation exercise on the Green Paper on territorial cohesion at the informal meeting in Marianske Lazné (Czech Republic) on 22-24 April. “We wanted to provide a model of best practice that would allow delay and disparities to be overcome,” she said.
CoR President Luc Van den Brande welcomed the fact that cohesion policy was able to adapt to the challenges. He noted that enlargement had made it more necessary for the EU to intervene to tackle economic and social disparities. He said the two main areas of progress in the period from 2007 to 2013 had been the regulation on the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) and the inclusion of the concept of territorial cohesion in the Treaty. With regard to cohesion policy after 2013, he highlighted the need to avoid any attempt at renationalisation and pointed out that “territorial cohesion policy applies to all the Community's sectoral policies. Policy has to be coherent and all policies have to be complementary”.
In his answer to Jean-Marioe Beaupuy (ALDE, France) who raised the issue of European governance, Van den Brande said that multi-level governance was also about “multi-level actors, and about giving societal actors confidence”. Hübner stated that, in her opinion, governance was becoming ever more important. “I am delighted that the CoR is going to do more in this area,” she said, expressing the hope that at the next CoR Open Days, there would be a session on “the next stage of governance. I hope that the Commission will contribute to this”.
Danuta Hübner announces creation of informal working group on ORs
Commissioner Hübner also spoke of her meeting, that morning, with the presidents of the seven outermost regions (ORs) (Azores, Canaries, Guadeloupe, Guiana, Madeira, Martinique and Reunion). At the meeting, it was decided to set up an informal working group that would bring together representatives of the European Commission and the above regions. This working group will operate on a technical level and will form a daily channel of communication between the Commission and the outermost regions. This kind of body will permit discussion, inter alia, on how ORs can take best advantage of recent changes to the rules on European structural funds to face up to the crisis. (G.B./transl.jl/rt)