Policy Focus

Europe's regions "vital" says EU regional chief

Europe’s regions can play a “vital” role in helping thecontinent meet future challenges of globalisation, according to EUcommissioner Danuta Hübner.

Addressing a conference, the Polish official said, “I am convincedthat without the regions we will not be able to resolve all theproblems, nor take up all the opportunities that globalisationgenerates.”

Hübner, who is responsible for regional policy, said Europe’sregions are “best placed” to meet and benefit from globalchanges.

However, she says it is her “firm belief” that Europe has to makecohesion policy “simpler, more user friendly and moreperformance-oriented.”

She pointed out that this was one of the conclusions of a wideranging public consultation exercise recently conducted by thecommission on the future of cohesion policy.

“First and foremost, there is an overwhelming unanimity in favourof the continuation of the policy beyond 2013,” she said.

“There is also an overwhelming demand across the EU forstrengthening this in the future.”

The 100 stakeholders who responded to the survey also called forincreased involvement of regional bodies in the implementation ofcohesion policy.

“Simplification is another demand with many stakeholderscomplaining about excessive auditing of the programmes and red tapeformalities,” said Hübner.

She was speaking in the Moroccan port city of Tangers at an eventjointly organised by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and theRennes-based Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions(CPMR).

The two-day event, entitled the “2nd International Convention on aRegional and Local Approach to Development,” attractedrepresentatives of regions from all over the world and follows thesuccess of a similar event in Marseille last year.

Speaking at the same event, CPMR president Claudio Martini, who isalso president of Tuscany region, said, “The end product of thesetwo days is a commitment from all of us to find new synergies inway of cooperation between European regions and other parts of theworld.

“One way of doing this is through the UNDP Art Gold programme,which promotes the territorial dimension and seeks betterutilisation of available resources.”

The Committee of the Regions was represented at the conference byits vice president Gordon Keymer and MEPs Lambert Van Nistelrooijand Thierry Cornillet while

EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner gave avideo presentation.