Special Relationship

28/09/2009 00:00:00

Committee of the Regions President Luc Van den Brande has called for a "partnership of the future" in an open letter to José Manuel Barroso, the recently re-elected President of the European Commission.

In the letter the CoR called for the European Commission to recognise the importance of European regions and cities in the design, discussion and implementation of policy guidelines.
 
And, whilst the offer to establish a "special partnership" was welcomed and recognised as a real opportunity to strengthen European democracy, Mr Van den Brande urged the European Commission to go further.
 
In his letter Mr Van den Brande stated: "Your objectives are major political challenges for the future and require not only a strong alliance between the Commission and the European Parliament but also a genuine partnership with the regional and local authorities, which are major players. Apart from being directly responsible for the implementation of the action programme, which you have quite rightly outlined: effective action to bring Europe out of the crisis; being in the vanguard of the fight against climate change; developing new sources of sustainable growth and social cohesion; promoting the Citizen's Europe."
 
He also called for a new impetus to be given to the European economy through the regions and cities, which account for two thirds of public investment and one third of public spending in Europe.
 
The next action of Mr Barroso will be to form a new team of commissioners who will draw up a policy programme for the next five years.
 
To see a full copy of the letter from Luc Van den Brande and to see how the CoR believes Europe's cities and regions should be considered more during policy making please click here.

Last Updated: 28/09/2009 09:33:48 By Katherine Hitchcock