Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-17-Speech-4-032"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091217.3.4-032"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, three years ago, a major reform of European cohesion policy was introduced taking into account the unprecedented enlargement of the Union and new emerging challenges.
The 2006 reform of cohesion policy has made it a modern place-based policy founded on a balance between equity and efficiency, between bottom-up and top-down approaches, between common strategic European objectives and local flexibility.
There is a need to move further on those issues, to continue the reform of policy governance, but certain principles should not be abandoned. The new treaty has cemented the new understanding of European subsidiarity already deeply rooted in the cohesion policy, that is, subsidiarity extended to local and regional levels of governance.
We can do more on it, especially with regard to the local level. Those who suggest that cohesion policy can be limited to Brussels and national level either do not know the European reality, or do not understand that excluding local and regional Europe from the pursuit of common European objectives is economically at best unwise and politically dangerous.
Cohesion is a notion that excludes exclusion. For political, economic, social and legitimacy reasons, cohesion policy must not be divisive: it should be a policy for all, as the internal market is, as the common currency is.
All elements of this integration triangle – common market, common currency, cohesion – are mutually strengthening and interdependent. They are our common European public good.
We policy makers have raised the stakes by promising to deliver. The challenges are well known; the EU 2020 strategy has been opened to public consultations.
Development policy with clear targets and tools is needed. Cohesion policy is a policy for development that engages all levels of European governance working in concert for European citizens.
To conclude, Europe needs new energy to take care of its future, to renew itself in an assertive way. It is legitimate to ask where this energy could and should come from. For me, the answer is clear. Today, this energy should come from below. Today this energy can be released through the direct engagement of local and regional levels of European governance in the pursuit of common European objectives.
It was not by chance that, back in 2005 and 2006, the top priorities for European cohesion policy were: the Lisbon strategy, innovation and competitiveness, climate change, energy security and efficiency, water efficiency, investment in new skills, attractiveness of territories for young people, and quality of life.
It is because we have understood that the mission of cohesion policy is to anticipate change, not to follow it, that we have put on the cohesion policy agenda for 2007-2013 all those priorities which we see today in the Commission’s Europe 2020 agenda.
That is why, more than two years ago, the Regions 2020 analytical report was published. The purpose was to know what the cohesion policy priorities should be after 2013. Today, we are well prepared to face the future.
A year ago, the policy put all its assets at the disposal of the European Recovery Package, thereby also providing the essential link between the exit strategy from a real economic crisis, on the one hand, and long-term sustainable growth and structural transformation on the other.
But our oral question is about the future. In years to come, the Europe we live in will be in need of strong collective action to respond to the expectations of its citizens, who are today informed citizens, fully aware of how much depends on choices made by policy makers. Those expectations are confirmed by public opinion polls.
Jacques Delors once said that the European single market is about competition that stimulates, about cooperation that makes us stronger and about solidarity that makes us united. European cohesion that makes the single market work is delivered by the European regional policy, which is today based exactly on this triple foundation: competitiveness, cooperation and solidarity.
For years, we have talked about the need to unlock, to mobilise, the development potential of all European regions and cities. Experience and logic clearly show that this mobilisation turns out to be most effective and efficient if pursued through the direct engagement of subnational levels of European governments.
The European regional policy has already passed the subsidiarity test. Subsidiarity works for Europe."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples