Cohesion policy

The concept of "territorial cohesion" can help strengthen the EU cohesion policy and adapt it to local needs: this is one of the key messages of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) in its.response to the Green Paper on territorial cohesion.

 

CEMR believes that the added value of territorial cohesion lies in its bottom-up approach: the starting point of any legislation that has an impact at the local level should be the local needs (the territory concerned). Sectoral policies (transport, environment, energy...) should also be taken into consideration when drawing up legislation and all stakeholders, including local government, should be involved.

 

Territorial cohesion must be envisaged in an integrated manner, says CEMR secretary general Jeremy Smith. This implies that the EU and local, regional and national authorities should make sure that the different sectoral policies do not contradict one another. It also means that emphasis should be put on the impact of policies on our territories, when drawing up legislation. National governments should involve the local and regional levels in the planning, decision-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process.

 

CEMR also welcomes the positive view expressed in the Green Paper on territorial cohesion towards cooperation among several local governments for the provision of services of general interest. Such joint public structures should be seen as internal administrative functions by which they perform their public responsibilities and not be subject to the EU's internal market and competition rules. CEMR has strongly campaigned for inter-municipal arrangements providing public services on a given territory should not fall under the scope of EU's Internal Market rules.

 

Background information

 

The Lisbon Treaty, still to come into force, explicitly adds territorial cohesion as a third dimension of regional policy (beside the social and economic dimensions). This dimension is however not new. The EU Commission's decision to publish a Green Paper on the issue comes from the inclusion of territorial cohesion in the Treaty. One of the Green Paper's aims is to provide a definition of territorial cohesion and to translate it into EU legislation.