EU regional policy: Communicating success

Communicating the success stories from the regions “is absolutely essential”, claims EU regional policy chief Danuta Hübner.

Now that negotiations over EU budgets for 2007 to 2013 are out of the way, the regional policy commissioner sees the regions coming to the fore as Europe gets on with it. And, as the EU moves towards a 2008 debate on how EU financing should be organised for a 21st century Europe, Danuta Hübner signals an enhanced role for the regions.

“The successful initiatives almost always come from below. In the context of the increasing role of innovation and modernisation, the importance of new ideas, new approaches, brought by local regional involvement, is paramount. I think this idea of growth from below will play a more and more important role in the decades to come. This means that regions, based on democracy and local initiative, will be absolutely essential as drivers for change and innovation. By empowering regions in the context of growth, you engage local knowledge and experience - this is extremely important and brings added value.”

“In the current situation of Europe, and in the context of global challenges, this aspect is absolutely essential. In the years to come, the fact that regions are so important as drivers for growth means that they must also be part of the political process. We need to have the regions and local communities really being heard, consulted and involved.”

“That is why, I think, the Committee of the Regions has over the past year become an extremely important partner for us. Let us not forget either many other regional associations in Europe: we must listen to their voices and react to them. I think we can bring a lot of best practice through our common policies and help people communicate success stories to others. This already happens through cooperation at the local and regional level very efficiently.”

One complaint often made by elected regional representatives is a lack of consultation by national governments drawing up national strategic reference frameworks and operational programmes – an issue that asks wider questions about the involvement of regions and cities in the jobs and growth agenda.

“I must stress that we have managed to put into our regulations the partnership principle and the need for all member states to involve regional authorities but also social, academic and economic partners in the entire process. Starting with programming and ending with implementation of the policy. We have even proposed the delegation of the implementation of projects to the cities, for example, which will also be a novelty.”

“But there is a very diverse situation in Europe when it comes to the way member states are organised. You have some that are much more decentralised, where the regions are themselves preparing operational programmes and negotiating directly with Brussels. You also have countries where the role of the state is stronger as regards operational programmes. We have member states which bring regions to Brussels to negotiate. We have some others that come alone.”

Whatever the national structures of government, whether federal such as Germany or Belgium or centralised such as the UK or France, Hübner will uphold the rules. “Nevertheless, the principle of the obligation to consult, to get the involvement of local and regional authorities, and partners applies to all EU countries. In the process of negotiation, the commission duly ensures that member states prove that consultation has taken place.”

She also insists that the voices from regions and cities are of growing importance to the ears of Brussels and national policy makers – including those of Europe’s leaders at this year’s spring EU summit. New regulations for spending on regional policy programmes for 2007 to 2013 will also hardwire the requirement.

“If you read carefully the conclusions from the council of mid-March, you can see that there is already an obligation on the member states to consult the Committee of the Regions, regional and local partners. This is in the context of the entire Lisbon agenda, not just in regional policy but also the national reform programmes. So I think we are making progress on this too.”

“Certainly there will be different situations in different member states due to national specificities. But I think the trend is pretty clear and the new regulations will strengthen the importance of the involvement of the regions in the entire management system. The commission has the power to check whether this is really observed. And - I can assure you - we will.”

Hübner believes concerns that the new competition agenda could displace the old cohesion policy of stopping the poorest regions falling behind are a “huge misunderstanding”. “I think in this commission we have very quickly realised, through our discussions, that cohesion and competitiveness are two sides of the same coin.”

“Years ago you could achieve cohesion through different instruments, through building roads or investing in traditional infrastructure. Today, you achieve cohesion by investing in what is competitive, what is innovative, by investing in broadband for example. The poorer regions do not have the comfort of being able to keep up with the speed of the changing world. They think they can focus today on building, on investing, on some basic infrastructure. They will think about innovation tomorrow.”

“But they must absolutely do both at the same time. We do not want to see regions that will just build new roads but that are not attractive to private investment and for people to live and work because they will not be competitive and they will not have innovation. So this challenge must be seen by us in a more, integrated, comprehensive way.”

“And, that is why the cohesion policy at a regional level is the start of the Lisbon agenda. In fact, we have made this policy a major instrument to deliver on Lisbon. This also helps this commission to better integrate and tighten all policies. When I think where we were two years ago, we are today much better at using the synergies between other policies and regional policy. Today we need to invest both in research and roads.”

The Polish commissioner assures that ‘earmarking’ for competitiveness will not prevent the new EU members states from engaging the kind of infrastructural projects old EU15, countries such as Spain or Ireland, have benefited from.

“Earmarking on the commission’s side was an attempt to make an additional effort with regional policy towards the types of investment which contribute to sustainable growth - not only in environmental terms, but in terms of the sustained growth, sustained jobs and competitiveness of European economy.”

“We will negotiate now with every region and every member state that additional effort should be invested in those areas and in those priorities. It is not obligatory for anybody. But we want to negotiate with new member states, we want to see them as part of Lisbon. Because they have to think of their competitiveness today and this will not come only through new roads.”

“But clearly, I know myself of regions which do not have one good road, nobody would go there to invest. So it is not a one-size-fits-all policy. We are very flexible. We just want them to think very seriously about what kind of investment they need to become competitive in a sustained way. So it is an open, flexible approach, but the expectation is that additional effort towards Lisbon will be achieved with the investment coming from the structural funds.”

One thing quickly becomes clear when talking to Danuta Hübner: she really believes in strong regions as a driver for delivering on Europe’s jobs and growth agenda. As she looks ahead to a new phase in regional policy, the Polish commissioner is adamant that a “Europe of results” comes from below. Or to turn a famous slogan on its head, the EU needs to think local to act global.

“We should all work together. There is no other way that we can achieve the goal of making Europe an accountable global partner if we are not economically sound. This will not come without strong involvement of all regions, without people at a local level really feeling responsible for change in Europe. Working together and communicating the success stories to others is absolutely essential.”

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