Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-13-Speech-1-196"
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"en.20101213.20.1-196"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, firstly, I find it regrettable that an important debate on cohesion policy has once again been pushed almost into last place on the agenda. It does not do justice to this policy and its importance in any way. I would like to express my thanks to the rapporteurs for their reports, which have emphatically shown us the policy area in which the European Union has been really successful – namely cohesion policy – and the fact that it is essential to continue this policy and to do so in a political system with multiple levels – in other words, multi-level governance.
Cohesion policy projects make European action directly visible to our citizens: in infrastructure projects, in social projects, in support for research, innovation, in the maintenance of competitiveness and employment in the regions. In the current debate on the future of the European Union, alongside the debates on currency and finances, we should be debating with the same intensity on what the European Union needs to ensure its internal cohesion, so that countries and regions do not drift apart economically, socially or politically. After all, when faced with global challenges and the emergence of new competitors on the world market, we need greater union and greater commonality. Cohesion policy can make a significant contribution to this.
For this, however, we need cohesion policy to be focused more on those projects and project areas that advance Europe as a whole, that enable those who are strong to remain strong, and that give those that are weaker the opportunity to close the gap to the strong. In my view, to achieve this, it is necessary to maintain and expand the objectives of cohesion policy that have applied to date. However, I also feel it is necessary to make the funding more conditional and more focused on central European initiatives, whether in the transport sector, in the energy sector, in regional and urban development, or in research and innovation. The path described by the Commission in its Fifth Cohesion Report seems to me to be a necessary part of this – namely, to integrate the funds into a common strategic framework which results in a development and innovation partnership between the Commission, the Member States and the representatives of the regions. It also includes, however, involving the local and regional administrations in this process as early as possible. In so doing, the new forms of regional cooperation could genuinely support the process of developing real multi-level governance.
Mr President, I hope you will allow me to make a further comment regarding what was said by Mr Colman, who has unfortunately left the Chamber. I would like to remind him that the European Union is a voluntary union of states. If countries want to leave, they have the right to do so. However, I do not believe that is what the citizens of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England really want."@en1
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