EU's regions to be at the heart of new 'Lisbon strategy'

Prague: Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said that increasing the role of regional authorities will be a priority in the next stage of the EU's growth and jobs strategy.

Speaking at the bi-annual summit of regions and cities in Prague on Friday, Barroso said that boosting the involvement of local bodies would be a key focus in the Lisbon strategy from 2010.

His comments came after Committee of the Regions president Luc Van den Brande and Czech regional development minister Cyril Svoboda opened a consultation of regions and cities on what comes next for the Lisbon strategy, launched in 2000 with the aim of increasing European competitiveness.

"The consultation exercise that president Van den Brande announced this morning will take us to the end of 2009," said Barroso.

"By then we'll have a new European parliament and a new commission so no one can anticipate exactly what the content of the new strategy will be.

"However, my personal feeling is that the recipe we have is essentially the right one, although there may well be some adjustments.

"And I think that one priority for the post-2010 period will certainly be the involvement of local and regional authorities in policy making."

Barroso highlighted a recent Eurobarometer survey which revealed that almost 60 per cent of Europe's citizens wanted to see regional and local authorities given a greater say in decision making.

Launching the consultation process, Van den Brande said, "It is only with regions and cities on board that the EU will be able to achieve its goals of boosting economic growth and creating more jobs, especially in these difficult times.

"I strongly believe that the European commission, the council presidency and the 2010 spring European council will take into account all our contributions.

"This is a remarkable moment, when local and regional authorities can directly express their opinions to Brussels on a new Lisbon strategy."

Barroso also spoke of the need for unity in tackling the economic crisis and sought to rally support for his proposals to use €5bn of unspent European funds for clean energy and broadband investment.

"We must look ahead," he said. "The crisis will take time to fix - it's a serious crisis - but we can fix it."

Calling for all EU bodies to work together, he said that confidence and a "spirit of partnership" was also needed to find a way out of the recession.

"The EU has instruments, institutions, policies to meet this challenge," Barroso added. "The European commission is fully mobilised."

"If you work in a true spirit of partnership between all institutions, I think we can help get out of this crisis soon.

"The 'go it alone' principle is not acceptable... in Europe we are all in the same boat."

The president also commended the outcome of the summit in Brussels last Sunday, where EU leaders stressed the need to avoid protectionism.

"The need to keep the internal market and the need to keep that European unity is not just about political rhetoric," he concluded.

"It is indeed a condition of survival - of our industry, of our market, of our jobs. That is why we have to be all rowing in the same direction."

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