Irish Regions Office Website

June 25, 2008

Fifth Cohesion Report backs local & regional roles

Along with the, now traditional, analysis of economic and social development trends in the European regions, the Fifth Progress Report on Economic and Social Cohesion: Growing regions, Growing Europe, adopted on 18 June, also reviews the public consultation carried out towards the end of last year on the future of Cohesion Policy. Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner took the opportunity of the report’s launch to highlight contributions received from Member State governments in particular which “confirm their ongoing commitment to an ambitious policy involving all EU territory” (i.e. not confined to the poorest regions) rather than any attempt at renationalising. Mrs Hübner particularly underlined the report’s contents as a call for stronger links with EU sectoral policies in the light of complex challenges (especially relating to rural development); for a desire for “change in Cohesion Policy management and governance” to ensure simplification; and for greater involvement of local and regional authorities in policy programming and implementation. The report also illustrates a broad consensus in favour of further developing a Regional Policy area where regional bodies are already prominently involved – namely territorial cooperation (‘Interreg’) - with greater flexibility to enable cooperation between regions not necessarily in the same geographical zone being seen as desirable Download the report from: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/reports/interim5/com_2008_371_en.pdf

Posted by iroronan at June 25, 2008 04:48 PM