Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-131"
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"en.20050927.18.2-131"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to begin by making some comments on Mr Guellec's excellent report on the role of territorial cohesion in regional development. I highly appreciate your support for promoting the concept of territorial cohesion in our regional policy. I wish your enthusiasm was shared by all our Member States, but, as you know, the current version of Structural Funds draft regulations has weakened the Commission's proposal on territorial cohesion. This is true, for example, for urban issues. The proposals foreseen by the Commission as compulsory have been rendered merely optional by the Council. Another example is the substantial decrease in terms of financial resources regarding the new European territorial cooperation objective in the Financial Perspective, according to the latest compromise proposal of the Luxembourg Presidency. In this proposal it amounts to only half of the amount proposed by the Commission. So I should like to encourage you to reinstate our initial ideas in the negotiations.
With regard to financial perspectives and the cohesion policy and the outermost regions, we certainly welcome the UK Presidency's stated aim of reaching a consensus on the package of regulations as soon as possible so that it can be finalised very quickly once the outcome of the future financing negotiations is known. I pay tribute to Parliament, which quickly recognised the urgency of the situation and voted through the regulations at first reading by an overwhelming majority and with very constructive amendments. An urgent deal on the budget is particularly important for the outermost regions. Such a deal must include, in our view, the special programme that the Commission has proposed for the outermost regions in order to compensate for the additional costs those regions have to bear.
I repeat that we will do everything we can to get support from the Member States for those ideas.
I see the work on territorial cohesion as something that we must take forward on two fronts. First, through greater emphasis on territorial cohesion in the next generation of cohesion programmes. It must be said that in the draft Community strategic guidelines – which were adopted by the Commission at the end of June – we asked Member States and the regions to pay particular attention to a balanced territorial development when preparing their future regional programmes. In this context, the future national strategic frameworks represent a key opportunity for promoting development models respectful of territorial balance. Moreover, the draft regulations foresee provisions for the specific character of certain territories and they focus on certain thematic priorities which contribute to the territorial development by improving their accessibility or by fostering the development on research and innovation poles.
Secondly, I believe we can advance our work on territorial cohesion through promotion of exchange of experience, best practice, benchmarking and also analytical work. As you know, Espon – the research programme – is helping us to improve the understanding of territorial trends and the impact of sectoral policies on the enlarged Union. In addition, other networks, such as Interact or Urbact, contribute to this. I feel confident that these initiatives can be continued in the future as well.
With regard to the regular reports on economic and social cohesion carried out by the Commission, I propose to devote part of the fourth cohesion report – due for publication in 2007 – to the territorial cohesion issue. I would also like to inform you that my services are currently preparing a working paper on the cities' contribution to growth and jobs in the regions. This paper will complement the Community strategy guidelines and will be presented to the informal ministerial meeting on sustainable communities in Bristol in December of this year.
Finally, I am also convinced that we can take forward our work on territorial cohesion through better coordination of Community policies and national policies. So, once again, I am grateful for the emphasis you put on the role of territorial cohesion in our regional policy and I am willing to take forward the territorial cohesion issue both in the context of the new programmes and in our exchange of best practice.
I now turn to Mr Marques' report, which is also excellent. It is about stronger partnership for the outermost regions, with a number and diversity of recommendations which are clear proof of the strong commitment and dedication of the European Parliament to this important subject.
I am very pleased that the Commission succeeded in establishing a good foundation for a strong partnership with the outermost regions, at both political and technical levels. I strongly believe that the last meeting we had in La Réunion is visible proof of this partnership.
As you said, we have indeed proposed a significant number of measures to promote economic development of the outermost regions in line with our communication of last year. Our proposals cover many areas such as cohesion policy, agriculture, fisheries and research. Those proposals are currently under negotiation in the Council and Parliament. I sincerely hope that we can swiftly come to an agreement.
Some important proposals are still under preparation; in particular, rules on national regional aid, which the Commission will adopt by the end of 2005. I share your view that much remains to be done. Your draft resolution constitutes an important milestone, which we will take into account in our daily work. In our next report on the outermost regions, possibly in 2007 or 2008, I plan to assess the progress made. It is also indispensable to have a coherent approach across all Community policies that takes account of the specific situation of the outermost regions and which needs to be complemented by appropriate national policies. As Commissioner in charge of the coordination of questions related to those regions, I am committed to ensure that all measures taken by the college are adapted to the specific situation of these regions. Your motion for a resolution identifies a significant number of topics to which I will refer in my closing remarks."@en1
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