Cohesion policy

The EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hübner has called for more involvement of local and regional levels in the future of cohesion policy. At a conference in Maribor (Slovenia, 7-8 April 2008), Commissioner Hübner said that there are still large unused growth resources at the local.level.

 

She added that the future cohesion policy needs local and regional government to be more involved in the planning, delivering and monitoring of regional policies and instruments: : Subsidiarity does not only concern Member states and we might rethink the European subsidiarity principle to put more emphasis on regional and local levels' said Danuta Hübner.

 

Boris Tonhauser, in charge of cohesion policy at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), replied that our regions and towns across Europe face environmental, demographic, energy and structural challenges. Therefore, more responsibilities should be allocated to local and regional authorities.

 

CEMR's representative also stressed the need to go beyond purely economic data to decide which regions can benefit from what funding in the framework of cohesion policy. The level of 'regional well-being" should be an important criterion. It can be assessed by combining for instance quality of employment, decentralisation, quality of transport as well as other socio-cultural, socio-demographic and socio-environmental factors he said.

Background information

 

The conference on the future of cohesion policy was organised by the Slovene presidency of the EU. It took place in Maribor (Slovenia) on 7 and 8 April 2008. Other speakers included the Slovene minister for local self-government and regional Policy Ivan Žagar, representatives from the EU Parliament as well as stakeholders and experts. The event focused on rationale of cohesion policy in terms of its structure, scope and objectives and Cohesion policy delivery mechanisms.

 

In January 2008, CEMR issued a position paper in response to the Public Consultation on the future of EU Cohesion Policy 'Growing Regions, Growing Europe".

 

Danuta Hübner's speech: 'Reflections on the future of cohesion policy"