Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-243"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040210.10.2-243"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, I am grateful to you for allowing me to reply to Mr Vallvé, as this question is also important. Like Mr Vallvé, the Commission believes that cross-border cooperation is a key element to European integration. Furthermore, in a different context, namely that of the Convention on the Future of Europe – in which I took part – I have repeatedly proposed that the draft Constitution should provide a sound constitutional platform for cooperation of this kind.
In any event, if we are to achieve the harmonious and balanced integration of the entire EU, we must support cooperation, especially cross-border cooperation. This is precisely what we are doing with the Interreg III Community initiative, which contains a Strand A specifically dedicated to strengthening cross-border cooperation. I am also completely aware of the difficulties that authorities at Member State, regional and local level have experienced in putting in place Interreg cross-border cooperation projects.
These difficulties have mainly to do with the need for partners on either side of a border to respect both national rights and the administrative rules and procedures of their own country. I say this, Mr President, with some degree of experience, as I spent seventeen years as the president of a border region in France, where I was in charge of a large number of projects that encountered the very types of difficulty that I have just mentioned, in my specific case with our counterparts in the Valle d'Aosta in Italy.
We must therefore provide a stable and shared solution to this problem. The Commission has called for a study to catalogue the problems faced by the authorities in charge of these programmes, with some suggestions as to how these problems may be solved. The results of this study will be made public in the spring, giving the Commission time to propose appropriate legislative measures in the framework of the future regulation applicable to the coming Structural Funds programming period. This legislative proposal will, I believe, be presented in June.
The Members of your House will be aware that the Commission is to adopt next week, on 18 February, the third report on economic and social cohesion, which I shall be presenting to this House. The report will contain proposals for a reformed and strengthened cohesion policy after 2006. The creation of a legal framework for cross-border cooperation, which Mr Vallvé so fervently wishes to see, must form part of the proposals that the Commission will support in its third report on cohesion."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples