By Martin Banks - 4th October 2010
If we do not include European regions and cities from the start we will repeat the same mistakes as in the Lisbon strategy
Lambert Van Nistelrooij
Dutch MEP Lambert Van Nistelrooij has made an impassioned defence of the amount the EU spends on regional funding.
His comments come as Open Days, the annual get together of senior representatives from Europe’s regional authorities and cities, gets underway in Brussels.
Open Days this year focuses on what it calls the Three C’s: "competitiveness, cooperation and cohesion."
His speech is also timed to coincide with the ongoing debate about the future of regional funding, which currently accounts for about one third of the whole EU budget.
Many regions fear this will be severely pared back once the protracted negotiations on the next EU spending round after 2013 are completed.
But Van Nistelrooij, an EPP deputy and member of the regional development committee, said that efforts to meet the various targets set under the EU2020 strategy are doomed to failure unless the role of regions is taken into account.
The EU2020 strategy is the commission's flagship policy which aims to promote growth and job creation over the next 10 years.
"Currently, the EU2020 strategy does not properly take into account the role of the regions and cities. It seems that the strategy mainly consists of negotiations between member states," said Nistelrooij.
"I firmly believe the strategy will fail if we do not integrate multi-level government. Local and regional authorities can bring real added value to reach the planned objectives on climate change, R&D and the fight against poverty.
"If we do not include European regions and cities from the start we will repeat the same mistakes as in the Lisbon strategy. Failure will be the consequence."
Addressing a conference organised by the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions, he pointed out that regional authorities were legally responsible for "substantial policy competences" and "key actors" in implementing the EU2020 strategy.
It was for this reason, he said, that the EPP group in parliament had proposed a "territorial pact" whose aim is to guarantee that the "voice of regions" is heard at EU level.
The opening of this year's Open Days, which is organised by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and continues until 7 October, coincides with a meeting of parliament's committee on regional development on Monday.
