Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-21-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20080221.3.4-010"2
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"Madam President, I wish to begin by congratulating – and perhaps, even more, by thanking – both Ms Kallenbach and Mr Guellec on their reports, and also the Committee on Regional Development on its excellent work both on the fourth cohesion report and on the report on territorial cohesion.
Clearly the Commission sees as good news – as does your report – the introduction of the notion of the territorial dimension of cohesion in the Lisbon Treaty, and now we have to make the most of this new dimension of cohesion policy and the avenues it opens up such as, for example, the new definition of subsidiarity giving more weight to local and regional authorities. That is why the Commission included the Green Paper on territorial cohesion in our legislative and work programme for 2008.
Even if there is no standard definition of the concept yet, territorial cohesion synthesises the legal objectives of the Union to achieve a sustainable balance and harmonious development of its territory and also to provide equity of access to services of general interest. We are all aware today that there are a number of aspects of territorial balance in the Union which threaten the harmonious development of the Union economy and society in the years to come. They are at EU, national and regional level and also in some specific areas and with regard to outermost regions.
I am pleased to confirm that the key recommendations made in Ms Kallenbach’s report, as regards the definition of the concept of territorial cohesion and the implementation of an integrated approach to territorial development, and also the improvement of the synergies between Community policies, are all taken on board in the preparation of our Green Paper that will be adopted by the college next September.
Let me also use this opportunity to inform you that we are progressing with the Member States in our common understanding of territorial cohesion and its key components. We are currently working on the responses to the questionnaire which we have sent to 25 Member States on territorial cohesion, thus clearly making progress possible.
We have also established in the Commission an inter-service group which is giving us a framework to work in-house on territorial cohesion, and we have already completed the first part of this exercise: the identification of the territorial dimension of key EU policies. We have now embarked on the process, specifically on the process of developing some tools which also match your request. As you probably know, investigating territorial impact assessment of policies and also developing territorial cohesion indicators are among the priorities of the new strengthened ESPON programme.
As regards urban affairs, in March we will have the next Urban audit which is currently finalised and the second report on the state of European cities is due for June 2009. URBACT II has now been upgraded to a strategic instrument for networking and for exchanges in urban development.
My feeling is that we have, in the case of both reports, a high coherence of your views and of those of the Commission, and I now look forward to the debate for a better understanding of your concerns.
The Commission fully shares your views that European cohesion policy has played a major role in narrowing disparities across the European Union and thus fostering European integration, and also getting the Union closer to its people. Therefore, the Commission firmly rejects attempts to renationalise this policy.
We also share your view that adequate financial resources for cohesion policy must be guaranteed in the future in order to deal with the anticipated new challenges which will affect all European territories. We have also to keep in mind that, at the same time, cohesion policy will have to continue to cope with regional disparities resulting from the most recent, and forthcoming, enlargements.
Let me reassure you that, in the context of the ‘Lisbonisation’ of our policy, the main priority of European cohesion policy is, and will remain after 2013, the objective of narrowing disparities, as it is enshrined in the Reform Treaty. The solidarity dimension of the policy is central to this policy and the allocation of resources will certainly follow an inverse relation with the prosperity of countries and regions.
This view is also shared by an impressive majority of stakeholders across the Union. What is also shared is that European cohesion policy is much more than just a distributive mechanism of resources between Member States and regions; this policy is first and foremost a development policy whose objective is to foster the endogenous development of all European regions.
The Commission also shares your concern about the need for more coherence between European cohesion policy and other Community sectoral policies, especially rural development, research or competition. I would add here that the need for coherence between the different development policies also applies to the coordination between European cohesion policy and national polices. I am convinced that this is a key issue for the future of European cohesion, also in its territorial dimension.
I fully share your view that the success of the territorial agenda and the Leipzig Charter depends on two conditions. First, we need to put in practice an integrated approach to the territorial development in order to avoid a piecemeal approach to our territories. A classic example here is thinking in categories of purely rural or urban strategies, which misses the key importance of the true economic regions.
On the other hand, the integrated approach means also the need for integrating different sectoral policies both at the EU and Member State level, which affect the development of all our territories.
The second condition, as you rightly point out, is the need for the Commission to monitor and to assess regularly the progress in the implementation of actions agreed under the territorial agenda, and here we need to know more about the effects of these actions in the Member States so that the Commission can offer them adequate assistance. For example, on the basis of better monitoring, the Commission can further progress in the area of defining indicators of territorial cohesion."@en1
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