By Martin Banks - 10th November 2009
Our institution could never accept proposals that de facto go against the Lisbon treaty and the concept of multi-level governance
Luc Van den Brande
The European commission has come under fresh attack over possible plans to cut regional funding in the next EU spending period.
It follows concern that any cuts in the EU budget for 2010 will have an adverse impact on regional policy.
The European parliament is demanding that the budget be €127bn for 2010 – some €7bn more than that proposed by EU member states.
Organisations representing Europe's regions, including the CPMR and Assembly of European Regions (AER), have already expressed their concern in a letter to MEPs.
Now Committee of the Regions president Luc Van den Brande has pitched into the debate and has urged the commission to avoid "confrontation" with regional authorities.
Speaking at the annual conference of minister-presidents of European regions with legislative powers, the Belgian official warned against the "re-nationalisation" of EU regional policy.
He said, "Instead of pursuing a logic of confrontation between various sovereign entities, multi-level governance favours an inclusive approach."
He said the CoR will "only adopt an official position on the commission's budget review once it is adopted."
"However, it is nonetheless important that the commission knows from the outset that our institution could never accept proposals that de facto go against the Lisbon treaty and the concept of multi-level governance."
EU regional policy commissioner Pawel Samecki, meanwhile, has moved to allay growing concerns about the future of EU regional policy.
In a speech to the annual conference of the Association of European Border Regions in Ghent, he said, "We should not be distracted from careful planning for the future by the supposed implications of draft documents that have not been finalised.
"Designing and proposing a cohesion policy that will build on the achievements we have already seen while accelerating the move towards even stronger policy orientation and focus."
However, Samecki does concede the EU had to "concentrate our resources on a limited number of narrowly defined core priorities.
"We should make both the cohesion policy budget and spending rules more flexible to accommodate new needs or to help generate new ideas and approaches."
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