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Cohesion policy

Cohesion policy - 18.07.2006

Conference on the cohesion policy: French small towns not sufficiently involved in drafting the operational programmes of the European structural funds
The French Association of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (AFCCRE) and the Small Towns Association (APVF) have adopted a common declaration following the conference entitled Europe, a tool for the development of small towns? What future for the European structural funds after 2006?, in Toulouse on 7 July 2006.
 
In the declaration, participants underline their dissatisfaction with the low level of involvement of small towns in the shaping of strategies prior to the drafting of operational programmes. AFCCRE executive president, Michel Thiers, said in the name of his president, Louis Le Pensec, that the result of the consultation and that of the partnership with local authorities on the content and the way the future programming period is delivered is mixed if not to say inadequate.
 
On the basis of the statement on the inadequacy of the dialogue between the Government and local authorities, the declaration demands the creation, at national level, of a consultation committee of local authorities on European affairs.
 
Participants also warn the national and European authorities of the danger of a too exclusive targeting of the future structural fund programmes.
 
Without calling into question the relevance and the added value of the Lisbon Agenda, the declaration stresses the need to integrate the concept of sustainable development in operational programming. The participants hope that the same level of attention will be given to sustainable development as to the Lisbon Agenda.
 
Speakers included Michel Thiers, AFCCRE executive president; French elected officials; members of the French and European Parliament as well as representatives of the European Commission and of the Government.
 
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