Delivering the message

The presidents of the French regions have visited Brussels before, in 2006, where they were met by European commission president José Manuel Barroso and regional policy commissioner Danuta Hübner. At the time, our aim was to alert the European commission, and in particular its president, about the difficulties facing France’s regions when it comes to the management of structural funds. Although this is an internal dispute between the central and local governments in France over which the commission has little or no power to act, we considered it important enough to let the commission know that there was such a dispute. We also held meetings with MEPs on the same subject.

As a result, and following the excellent rapport we established with the commission on this tricky subject, it was with a certain amount of confidence and with our expectations high that the presidents of the French regions came once again to the capital of Europe on 4 June to discuss the forthcoming French presidency of the EU. Once again we were fortunate to be received at the highest level, with meetings with both the president of the European commission and his counterpart at the European parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. Danuta Hübner, with whom we are in regular contact, was also present, and I thank all three of them for their time.

As we look forward to the French presidency of the EU which begins on 1 July, and at a time when the European commission has launched a series of debates on fundamental changes to the European budget, the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy, it is vital for France’s regions to play a central role in these debates, and to ensure that the powers that be in Brussels are aware of the various positions taken on these issues by the Association des Régions de France (ARF), the body that brings together the heads of each of France’s regions to discuss and coordinate their common policies and positions on a wide range of issues.

For example, we used our trip to Brussels to call on the European commission and the European parliament to set their sites high when it comes to revising the EU budget for 2014-2020. A more substantial budget would, we believe, be the only means of guaranteeing that Europe and its regions will be able to withstand the effects of globalisation, free trade in goods and services, spiralling energy costs and concerns about climate change, a rapidly ageing society and the future enlargement of the EU, to mention just a few.

In the same way, we made it quite clear to the Brussels institutions that we are in broad agreement with the commission over the need to reform the CAP, in particular the proposals such as obligatory modulation, decoupling of payments from production, the introduction of ceilings on subsidy payments, greater regionalisation of the CAP and increased conditionality when it comes to financial support payments.

We also emphasised our desire to see a strengthening of EU cohesion policy and our complete opposition to any attempts to ‘renationalise’ the policy. We believe it is vital that the EU does not simply focus its efforts on designing new approaches for each policy sector but that it also ensures that it plays an active role in territorial issues as well, and that there are sufficient European funds to help implement policies in the latter field.

We also discussed a variety of other EU policies which we believe will play a key role in the future development of the union in general, and of the regions in particular. These included research, innovation, the environment, sustainable development and transport. In addition, we touched on the sometimes thorny issue of governance. France’s regions believe that local authorities, and the regional authorities above all, are best placed to assess where there is a need for greater action in terms of EU policies in their local community. They are also the best placed to implement those policies at the local level.

We would like to see greater consultation with the regions at both the European and national level. Nobody knows the needs and desires of local communities better than the people elected by and for those communities, and that local knowledge should act as a guarantee of the effectiveness of European policies at the local level. Local authorities are also best placed to ensure that EU structural funds are used correctly and with the most effect, and to ensure that the entire process remains as democratic as possible.

Our trip to Brussels was also an occasion for us to stress that the success of the Lisbon and Gothenburg strategies (on jobs and growth and sustainable development respectively) – strategies that are key to the very future of the EU – will only be seen if they are more effectively implemented at the local level. Local authorities are responsible for most of the policy areas affected by Lisbon and Gothenburg, including issues such as investment, and are ideally situated, therefore, to ensure that the goals set out in these strategies are being met. We hope that our message was heard and understood.

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