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Cohesion policy

EU funds - 11.03.2008

Danuta Hübner: "EU regional funds to help tackle globalisation"
The local level plays a very important role in tackling global challenges such as climate change, energy or the internal market, declared regional policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner underlined in the Euractiv's interview.
 
She declared that regional funds need an overhaul to become more closely linked to national priorities. In Europe, we have a process of decentralisation, with more and more public investment down at the regional or local level, Hübner said. Much of the decision-making will be done at the regional level, and this adjustment is a real challenge for the EU.
 
Danuta Hübner explains that there is a need to adjust this policy to the new challenges. The most important thing that we should do together is decouple the substance from the money. First, we have to define the new common challenges in the future. And then probably the next Commission has to decide on how much money we can spend for this policy. The most important point for the moment is to discuss the needs of Europe, declared Hübner.
 
The Commissioner also expressed the desire to have regional and local governments participate as much as possible in the discussion on the future of regional policy. We have just finalised the first stage of public consultation on the proposals coming from the Commission. We are now in the process of discussing the issue with the member states and we have been publicly consulting with all the regions and different stakeholders.
 
She finally praised the member states' decision to link 75% of all European cohesion policy funds to the goals of the Lisbon agenda, which would help contribute to growth, jobs, competitiveness and the economy in Europe.
 
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