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Comité van de Regio's stemt in met voorstellen Commissie over toekomst cohesiebeleid (en)

Committee of the Regions members broadly welcomed the European Commission's proposals for the five territorial funds regulations during the OPEN DAYS 2011 opening session on Monday hosted by the European Parliament's regional development (REGI) committee, chaired by Danuta Hübner.

CoR President Mercedes Bresso expressed her appreciation for many aspects of the proposal - the Common Strategic Framework, the partnership with local and regional authorities, the territorial dimension, a new category of transition regions, linking the European Social Fund with cohesion policy, a stronger EU territorial cooperation. "The new provisions meet exactly what we have asked for in our opinions," she said.

Michael Schneider, President of the EPP Group in the CoR and rapporteur on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) regulation, praised the Commission proposal and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn's attention to the role of the regions: "He has shown himself to be a real friend of the Committee of the Regions," he said.

CoR First Vice-President Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, meanwhile, stressed how "thematic concentration is important but our regions need a stronger flexibility in the definition of their own specific priorities and goals, this is the only way to ensure real multilevel governance".

However, on the issue of macro-economic conditionality Mercedes Bresso once again stressed the CoR's opposition to the proposal. As Michael Delebarre, chair of the CoR's COTER commission, said on behalf of the PES Group: "Macroeconomic conditionality would be a sword of Damocles hanging over the development of regions and local authorities."

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, meanwhile, said that cohesion policy was "more important than ever as a tool to support growth policies". But he added: "We need to evolve and modernise the way we work; it is no longer possible to think of cohesion policy as working in isolation from all other policies."

For his part, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek warned about the negative consequences that any reduction in the future EU budget would have on cohesion policy, which he called "a formidable driver of growth, a generator of investments and a creator of jobs".

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