EN Official Journal of the European Union C 192/34

Resolution of the Committee of the Regions on the Political Objectives of the Committee of the Regions (2006-2008)

(2006/C 192/07)

The Committee of the Regions

HAVING REGARD TO the Commission's strategic objectives for 2005-2009 (COM(2005) 12 final);

HAVING REGARD TO the 2004-2006 multi-annual strategic programme of the six presidencies;

HAVING REGARD TO the Communication from the Commission, The Commission's contribution to the period of reflection and beyond: Plan-D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate (COM(2005) 494 final);

HAVING REGARD TO the Protocol governing arrangements for cooperation between the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions (DI CdR 81/2001 rev. 2);

HAVING REGARD TO the Resolution of the Committee of the Regions on the European Commission's work programme and the Committee of the Regions' priorities for 2006 (CdR 275/2005);

HAVING REGARD TO the resolution of the Committee of the Regions on revitalising the Lisbon Strategy (CdR 518/2004);

WHEREAS the political objective underpinning all the CoR's political priorities is to strengthen the link between the European Union (EU) and each of its regions, provinces, towns and districts, thus bringing the EU closer to its citizens and making the concepts of cohesion and solidarity more meaningful;

WHEREAS because it is the regional authorities that are empowered to implement many EU policies, their involvement in defining the EU's priorities and drafting and following up EU legislation helps to strengthen the EU's democratic legitimacy;

WHEREAS the Committee of the Regions wishes to define political priorities, which, for the first half of its fourth term of office, will focus on three objectives: promoting the political and citizens' Europe — strengthening regional solidarity with the EU — consolidating the political and institutional role of the CoR;

WHEREAS without the prospect of the swift entry into force of the Constitutional Treaty, which the CoR and the regional authorities of the EU believe marks a major step forward, the CoR must devote itself primarily to strengthening the roles conferred upon it by the current Treaties, particularly the representation of all regional authorities within the EU;

adopted the following resolution at its 63rd plenary session of 15 and 16 February 2006, (afternoon meeting of 16 February):

OBJECTIVE 1:

STRENGTHENING THE POLITICAL AND CITIZENS' EUROPE

The Committee of the Regions

1. believes that the agreement reached at the European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 on the financial perspectives 2007-2013 simply expresses in figures the lowest common denominator of European commitment by Member States' governments. Yet the EU needs a budget and Community programmes that properly convey the idea and potential of Europe to our local and regional authorities, and thus bring the EU closer to the public.

Contributing to the ongoing discussion on the future of the European Union

2. considers that the period of reflection should highlight the progress achieved by the Constitutional Treaty in terms of European governance, simplicity, transparency of the European Union and reinforcement of the local and regional levels, especially as concerns promotion of the subsidiarity and proportionality principles. It should also make it possible to concentrate on: — the issues which our citizens expect to be solved by the European Union; — explaining and demonstrating the real added value of the European project, and increasing interaction between citizens across the Union, via the opportunities the EU offers citizens to develop their personal and professional interests.

3. stresses that any initiative relating to the treaties of the Union should be of the type used for the Convention, in which the CoR would be involved, thus helping to bring greater democratic legitimacy to the European venture.

4. will continue to promote respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, as one of the underlying principles of the European integration process.

5. reiterates, in the context of the period of reflection on the future of the European Union initiated by the European Council of June 2005, its call for a decentralised and structured discussion, ensuring an active and dynamic phase of dialogue with its citizens.

Increasing the involvement of local and regional authorities in drawing up European legislation

6. advocates increasing the CoR's involvement, at both the earlier and later stages, in the EU decision-making process and in the assessment of the regional impact of major EU policies, particularly through: — systematic consultation of local and regional authorities during the early stages of drafting European legislation; — increasingly systematic use of the new impact assessment method for the European Commission's major initiatives, and its involvement in the impact assessment method; — a special focus on the transposition of Community legislation and its effects on the legislation of local and regional authorities.

Explaining the EU accession processes more clearly

7.1 believes that public support for any new accession to the European Union hinges on the coherence of the EU's plan for the future.

7.2 encourages the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU presidencies, in close cooperation with local and regional authorities and civil society, to promote and support information campaigns on the EU enlargement process at a local and regional level, in both the Member States and candidate countries.

7.3 maintains that local and regional authorities have a key role to play in increasing the involvement of the local and regional bodies represented by the CoR in the integration of the new candidate countries. This role is particularly important given that various forms of decentralisation are being implemented in most of these countries. Moreover, the CoR should continue, particularly through the joint consultative committees, or other alternative modes of cooperation, to provide support to local authorities in candidate countries as they adapt to the acquis communautaire and in the ongoing, open process of membership negotiations.

OBJECTIVE 2:

STRENGTHENING TERRITORIAL SOLIDARITY WITHIN THE EU

8. notes that the compromise reached by the European Council on the financial perspectives for 2007-2013 allows for 0.37 % of the EU's gross revenue to be allocated to structural and cohesion policy. As this is well below the amount that it believes necessary to guarantee the convergence of European regions in the EU-27 (1), the CoR calls upon the budgetary authority to adjust this percentage. Nonetheless, the CoR believes that the swift conclusion of an inter-institutional agreement on the financial perspectives in the first half of 2006 is necessary in order for regional authorities to start planning work for projects co-financed by the EU.

Territorial cooperation

9. considers that, in the context of enlargement and a new cohesion policy for the period 2007-2013, the creation of an EU legal basis for enhancing territorial cooperation in the EU constitutes a major priority for regional and local authorities as it brings an added value by helping them to overcome the practical difficulties that cooperation faces in this moment in the EU; underlines the importance of a Regulation creating a European Grouping for Territorial cooperation (EGTC) and supports the proposal of the European Commission and the position of the European Parliament in view of the final phase of the negotiations for the Structural Funds Regulations; calls on the Council of Ministers to reach an agreement on the EGTC together with the rest of the Regulations of the Structural Funds.

Towards a more decentralised implementation of the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs

10. reiterates its support for the Lisbon Strategy as a priority political strategy of the European Union until 2010.

11. highlights the role of European local and regional authorities in ensuring consistency between the projects financed via the structural funds and the Lisbon Strategy (2) and recalls the need for more decentralised implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, in line with the conclusions of the European Council of Lisbon (3); therefore calls for the strong involvement of local and regional authorities in the process of revising the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs and in the implementation of national reform programmes by respective Member States, and undertakes to help achieve this objective by organising regional dialogue prior to the spring European Council meetings devoted to the economic and social reform of the EU.

12. considers that equal attention must be paid to the three pillars of the Lisbon Strategy (economic, social and environmental).

13. underlines the essential contribution of the Lisbon Strategy to the development of the European venture, through: — the improvement of labour market conditions in order to create more and better jobs for all; — promoting the social integration of women, young people, older people, the long-term unemployed, people with reduced mobility and minority groups; — the fight against poverty and social exclusion caused by inequality, discrimination and lack of opportunity; — reinforcement of regional cohesion, particularly by taking account of the needs of rural areas and ensuring that there is a balance between town and countryside in future urban and rural programmes; — promotion of high-quality public services and investment in infrastructure quality; — promotion of a knowledge- and innovation-based economy, through policies that better meet the needs of the information society, R&D and education and vocational training, particularly through the widespread introduction of lifelong learning; — anticipation and accompaniment of globalisation-related restructuring; — promotion of a culture of entrepreneurship and creation of a supportive business environment for the further development of SMEs.

Completing the internal market

14. considers that the completion of the internal market must be leveraged to increase employment growth and step up competitiveness and innovation in the EU.

15. urges the European Commission to continue bringing down barriers to citizen mobility, especially as 2006 is the European Year of Mobility for Workers.

16. recalls the need for a horizontal, multi-sector Community frame of reference in order to define the scope and management conditions for services of general interest; local authorities must be able to decide on the way in which these services are provided in line with the principles of subsidiarity and local self-governance.

17. reiterates, in the light of the legislative procedure to examine the draft directive on services, its call for the exclusion of all social services of general interest (healthcare, services related to anti-exclusion and integration measures, social housing), often managed by local authorities, from the scope of this draft directive, insofar as these services are not commercial in nature and have no impact on EU trade.

18. considers that trans-European networks in the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors are essential to ensure supply and to realise the full potential of the European economy, link up the enlarged Europe and improve territorial cohesion.

Reinforcing security in Europe

19. calls for security and safety of all citizens to be guaranteed, and reaffirms that local and regional authorities are determined to contribute to the eradication of the causes of insecurity and violence in cities and regions across Europe. In this context, suggests: — strengthening cooperation actions; — reinforcing the institutional framework and giving a more effective role to the local and regional dimension in the Community's approach; — developing and properly implementing a strategy to promote cross-cultural and inter-religious understanding and solidarity which would complement efforts to tackle social exclusion; — improving the European Civil Protection Mechanism by setting up regional civil protection centres in various risk areas, which would be responsible, in addition to other tasks, for the establishment of an early warning system, as an important preventive measure; — set up a European Observatory for urban safety, providing relevant European institutional bodies with information on planning of policies, the promotion and coordination of research, and the collection, organisation and processing of security data through the dissemination of examples and best practices from local and regional authorities. — urges the Commission to improve coordination between the new Solidarity Fund and the Structural Funds.

OBJECTIVE 3:

CONSOLIDATING THE POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ROLE OF THE COR

20. undertakes to pursue the CoR reforms, protecting its specific role as the EU's political assembly of locally and regionally elected representatives.

The CoR's commitments in terms of inter-institutional cooperation

21. undertakes, in terms of inter-institutional cooperation with regard to:

21.1 the European Parliament: to leverage the democratic debates of the European Parliament, to step up contacts between counterpart bodies and cooperate on preparation and follow-up of CoR opinions;

21.2 the Commission: to implement the cooperation protocol signed in November 2005 (4), particularly as regards the CoR's more proactive role during the early stages of Community action, and to step up synergies in the field of communication in order to bring Europe closer to the public, which should lead to an addendum to the cooperation protocol after the Commission's adoption of the White paper on communication. Furthermore, the CoR will aim to set up a ‘question time’ with the European Commission at its plenary sessions in order to further promote the dialogue between the two institutions about core European issues and provide local and regional authorities in Europe with further leverage in the European decision-making process;

21.3 the Council: to ensure more efficient communication channels for any Committee of the Regions members also sitting on the Council, to step up interaction with the presidencies, and to lay the groundwork for more systematic cooperation. In this regard, calls upon the presidencies for 2006-2008 to prepare for 2009 by presenting a strategic multi-annual programme similar to that submitted for 2004-2006 by the six presidencies concerned;

21.4 the European Economic and Social Committee: to develop political cooperation in the areas of EU policy in which the activities of the social players and regional authorities are complementary, and to make more effective use of the synergies generated by the joint administrative services and shared premises.

Strengthening the impact of the CoR

22.1 calls upon its own elected representatives to use the possibilities provided by the creation of a budget heading for financing political and information activities, in order to better play the role of ‘EU ambassador’ to their fellow citizens, and the role of ‘local and regional ambassador’ to the EU.

22.2 undertakes, with a view to targeting the issues where it has credibility and where its work brings real added value to the community decision- and law-making process, to ensure that its opinions are of more practical use to the institutions, and more readable and accessible to European citizens, particularly by being more concise when presenting key political messages in CoR opinions and the CoR's proposed amendments to the Commission's legislative proposals.

22.3 undertakes to improve the follow-up to opinions so that the CoR can have an influence throughout the Community decision-making process, particularly by stressing more specific points in the context of proposals subject to the co-decision procedure.

23. instructs its President to submit this resolution to the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council, the presidencies of the European Union in 2006-2008, namely the Austrian, Finnish, German, Portuguese, Slovenian and French presidencies.

Brussels, 16 February 2006. The President of the Committee of the Regions Michel DELEBARRE

(1) CdR 162/2004 fin.

(2) Page 11 (EN), COM 2005 (24).

(3) Point 38 of the conclusions.

(4) R/CdR 197/2005 item 11.