Regions & cities of Europe. No 88, September-October 2014.
Date: 2014-11-10
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: European Union, municipality, region, regional development, regional policy, serial publication, urban area

ISSN 1681-3235

EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

News from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

 OPEN DAYS
2014
Ángel Gurría

Special feature
Europe 
of the future 
Jyrki Katainen

Editorial
Michel Lebrun 

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1 Editorial2OPEN DAYS 2014 Interview with Ángel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General 4Interview with Marek Wozniak, COTER Chairman8 Special feature Europe of the future11We have to get more for each euro spent Jyrki Katainen11We need a return to greater public investment to create jobs Catiuscia Marini< -1.75-1.75 – -1.25-1.25 – -0.75-0.75 – -0.25-0.25 – 0.250.25 – 0.750.75 – 1.25< 1.25Standard deviation, range from poor quality(negative) to high quality (positive)European Quality of Government index, 2013EU = 0Source: European Commission, 6th Cohesion Report© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries0500 KmROSKBGITMTCZHUSIFRUKLVESLUCYNLATIEDKDEPLBESEELFILTEEPT-1.5-1.0-0.50.00.51.01.5-1.5-1.0-0.50.00.51.01.5405060708090WB Government effectiveness index, 2012 standardised so that EU=0Absorption of CohesionPolicy funding andGovernment effectiveness,2014Total absorption rate of Cohesion Policy funding 2007-2013 by 21/05/2014 (%)Absorption of funding and project selection for the 2007 - 2013programming period   020406080100020406080100ROSKBGITMTCZHUSIFRUKLVESLUCYNLATIEDKDEPLBESEELFILTEEPTEU-27Absorption rate May 2014Project selection rate by end 2013% of total Cohesion Policy funding 2007-201314Policy analysis The European Council’s Strategic Agenda and Europe 2020: A regional perspective16Crisis in Ukraine and Eastern Partnership22 Rapporteurs have their say27Brief news and eventsRegions & Cities of Europe — N° 88Director of Publication: Laurent Thieule Editor-in-Chief: Branislav StanicekCommittee of the Regions Communication, Press and Events DirectorateRue Belliard/Belliardstraat 99–101 1040 Bruxelles/Brussel BELGIQUE/BELGIËTel. +32 222822211www.cor.europa.euRegions & Cities of Europe is a magazine of the Committee of the Regions, published by the Communication, Press and Events Directorate.The content of this magazine does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Union institutions. Neither the institutions/bodies of the European Union, nor any person acting on their behalf, can be held responsible for any misuse of the information provided here.© European Union, 2014Printed in BelgiumNº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

ediTorial

Together we are creating  
the Europe of the future 

of new jobs and represent 60-70% of employment 
in the OECD member countries. Several regions 
and  cities  have  developed  projects  to  support 
businesses.  I  would  cite  the  experience  of  the 
Veneto Region in Italy, with its competition for 
young entrepreneurs, as well as that of the city of 
Brussels, with the Atelier des Tanneurs business 
centre  for  start-ups,  and  the  Innovation  Center 
in  Espoo,  Finland,  which  supports  cooperation 
between  the  university  and  local  and  regional 
authorities. 

“At a time when public policy 
decisions are defined by the 
opposing poles of austerity and 
Keynesian stimulus, advantage 
should be taken of the Union’s 
hidden resources that are 
available to us.”

The future of young people could be sustained by 
setting up companies in the new technologies sector 
in particular, as noted by Ángel Gurría, OECD 
Secretary-General, in the interview contained in 
this  issue.  Youth  employment  is  directly  linked 
to  quality  of  education  and  vocational  training. 
EU instruments such as the Youth Guarantee are 
helping to bridge the gap between what is taught 
in  educational  establishments  and  employers’ 
expectations. There are economic sectors looking 
for skills that are difficult to find in the labour 
market,  such  as  the  IT  and  communications 
sector,  where  one  million  vacancies  will  have  to 
be filled by the year 2020. Regions and cities can 
seize this opportunity and endeavour to cooperate 
with  the  European  institutions  to  capitalise  on 
the  investments  made  available  locally  through 
the  structural  funds.  Finally,  renewable  energy 
is  another  sector  with  the  potential  to  create 
substantial  employment  (“green  jobs”).  Europe’s 
cities and regions have drawn up proposals for a 
support scheme for renewable energy, since they 
are convinced that only a coordinated approach at 
EU level, combined with appropriate investment, 
can deliver on these goals.

EU energy policy is inextricable from the stability 
of  our  neighbourhood,  notably  the  geopolitical 

situation in Ukraine. A CoR delegation recently 
visited  Kiev,  where  we  were  received  by  the 
deputy  Prime  Minister,  Volodymyr  Hroysman, 
who is responsible for regional development and 
administrative  reform.  I  noted  when  we  were 
there how important it is for constitutional reform 
relating  to  administrative  decentralisation  to 
be  guided  by  the  principles  of  subsidiarity  and 
multilevel  governance.  We  also  contributed  to 
the ongoing debate between the government and 
Ukraine’s regional associations by analysing the 
government’s proposal for administrative reform.

The Committee of the Regions has recommended 
that  the  European  Commission  extend  to  our 
partners  in  Ukraine,  Georgia  and  Moldavia  – 
countries that have signed Association Agreements 
with the EU – cooperation arrangements such as 
the Local Administration Facility (LAF), or even 
the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation 
(EGTC). We are willing to share our experiences 
of decentralisation and of administrative reform. 
On 29 September we met our eastern European 
partners once again at the Conference of Regional 
and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership 
(CORLEAP) in Tbilisi, Georgia. In future we will 
also be deepening our relations with the European 
Parliament and the EURONEST Parliamentary 
Assembly,  which  brings  together  members  of 
parliament  and  elected  representatives  of  the 
Union’s eastern neighbours, and I will propose to 
its new president Heidi Hautala, MEP, that a joint 
meeting between CORLEAP and EURONEST 
be held during 2015. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  new  legislative  term,  I 
am  confident  that  the  CoR  will  consolidate  its 
institutional position and will become even more 
effectively involved in the legislative process. We 
will work together with the European Parliament, 
the Council and the new European Commission to 
consolidate effective, future-oriented policies that 
serve the interests of our citizens and businesses. 
This will allow us to reduce the exorbitant cost 
of  non-Europe.  This  is  the  path  to  growth  and 
employment that is now inspiring our European 
neighbours. We will also continue to be a forum 
for  contacts  and  exchange,  and  in  this  spirit  I 
would  like  to  welcome  the  6  000  participants, 
partners and journalists who will be attending this 
12th Open Days event. 

Michel Lebrun (BE/EPP),  President of the Committee of the Regions

A recent study carried out by the European 

Parliament,  Mapping  the  Cost  of  Non-
Europe 2014-2020, estimated the cost of 
failing to complete the European project at almost 
EUR 800 billion. At a time when public policy 
decisions are defined by the opposing poles of aus-
terity and Keynesian stimulus, advantage should 
be taken of the Union’s hidden resources that are 
available to us. The current crisis thus should en-
courage us to look to the future and to boost com-
mon  policies  that  support  industry,  innovation 
and businesses, based on bold measures that are 
framed by economic and social trends in Europe. 
This is how we will create growth and jobs.

However, we should also be careful to ensure that 
the talk about numbers and policies translates into 
a vernacular explaining what is at stake for us all in 
the future. At the beginning of my term I prepared 
the ground for my political programme, which was 
to bring Europe closer to its citizens, cities and 
regions,  and  to  bring  them  closer  to  Europe,  to 
support growth and employment, to stabilise our 
neighbourhood, and to develop the institutional 
and political role of our assembly. 

The path to be followed – and each step on that 
path – also reflect this. To start with, we know for 
certain that economic growth is taking off again, but 
that it is still fragile. As Jyrki Katainen, designated 
Vice-President of the European Commission for 
Economic  and  Monetary  Affairs  and  the  Euro, 
notes in this issue, we must do more with fewer 
resources. In the current macroeconomic context, 
where  budgets  must  be  kept  under  control  at 
every level, the only option for sustainable growth 
is a willingness to reform, innovate and support 
businesses, especially start-ups, which according 
to  the  Organisation  for  Economic  Cooperation 
and  Development  (OECD)  generate  some  90% 

Regions and Cities of euRope 1

oPen daYs 2014 

Interview with Ángel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General

The crisis has squeezed the resources 
available to regional and local 
authorities
EuropE is still sEarching for a way to gEt back on its fEEt. local and rEgional authoritiEs, along with citizEns, arE bEaring thE brunt of 

fiscal consolidation. on thE occasion of thE opEn days 2014 – thE world’s largEst-scalE EvEnt focusEd on rEgional and urban 
dEvElopmEnt – wE mEt with ÁngEl gurría, oEcd sEcrEtary-gEnEral sincE 2006, to discuss thE challEngEs facing EuropE’s rEgions and 
citiEs. sEcrEtary-gEnEral gurría strEssEd that “policiEs that takE account of rEgional diffErEncEs will bE crucial to mitigating thE long-tErm 
consEquEncEs of thE crisis and tackling challEngEs such as population agEing, EnvironmEntal sustainability and inclusivE growth. our countriEs 
nEEd nEw and original idEas for crEating growth and jobs and Enhancing public invEstmEnt, Education and transparEncy. this will rEquirE 
Engaging and EmpowEring rEgions and citiEs.”

How are regions recovering from the crisis? 

It depends on which country and which regions 
we are talking about. It is hard to generalise. In 
terms of growth and jobs, there is even more varia-
tion across regions than across countries. In some 
countries, differences between regions are enor-
mous. Our OECD Regional Outlook 2014 sug-
gests that, overall, cities have bounced back more 
quickly than the regions they are in, although there 
are exceptions. Rural regions have suffered more 
in terms of job losses but less in per capita output; 
this may be due in part to labour migration to cit-
ies. 

When we look at inter-regional disparities, we see 
a clearer picture, and it is a bleak one. In almost 
two-thirds of OECD countries, these disparities 
have grown over the last two decades and the crisis 
did not alter this trend. Inter-regional disparities 
have  increased  sharply,  both  in  countries  which 
have been severely affected by the downturn, like 
the Slovak Republic, and in others that largely es-
caped it, like Poland. In a few countries, we have 
seen  some  inter-regional  convergence  since  the 
downturn – Canada is a striking example – but 
in most cases this was due to downturns in richer 
regions rather than growth in poorer ones. This is 
clearly not the kind of convergence we want to see. 

The  OECD  is  increasingly  active  in  debates 
over  broader  measures  of  social  progress. 
Can you tell us something about this?

Undoubtedly  the  crisis  and  its  aftermath  have 
made  us  look  harder  at  how  we  measure  social 
progress. The crisis served to highlight the lim-
its of purely economic assessments of well-being. 
This is why we have expanded our OECD Better 
Life Initiative to bring it down to the regional level, 
closer to what people experience on a daily basis. 
We recently launched a web-based tool, “How’s 
Life in Your Region?”; it allows users to compare 
362 regions in 34 OECD countries on nine topics 
central to social progress and individual well-being 
– income, jobs, housing, health, education, safety, 
access to services, environment and civic engage-
ment (www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org). On 6 Oc-
tober, I will launch an in-depth report analysing 
these data – How’s life in your region? Measuring 
Regional Well-Being for Policy Making.

Examining regional well-being in this way reveals 
that  disparities  in  non-pecuniary  measures  of 
well-being are often greater among regions within 
a country than across different countries. For ex-
ample, the gap in the labour force’s educational at-
tainments between the Basque Country and An-
dalusia is similar to the difference between Spain 
and Sweden. Such regional disparities can increase 
welfare costs and jeopardise social cohesion. Even 

more worrying is that intra-country gaps between 
the  best-  and  worst-performing  regions  in  ar-
eas like health care have widened in many OECD 
countries. 

Unevenness in well-being affects national perfor-
mance.  Countries  with  larger  regional  dispari-
ties in access to education, jobs and key services 
also register lower well-being outcomes overall at 
country level. We see a disturbing degree of stabil-
ity among the poorest-performing regions on key 
well-being indicators: for example, more than 90% 
of OECD regions ranking in the bottom quintile 
for education in 2000 were still there in 2013; for 
safety, the corresponding figure was over 80%.

Regional well-being indicators can empower citi-
zens to demand actions that respond to their own 
specific expectations and, in turn, can restore their 
trust in the capacity of public institutions to ad-
dress the most pressing challenges.

What can regional and local authorities do 
to accelerate the progress?

Regional and local authorities have a key role to 
play  as  they  hold  important  responsibilities  for 
many  of  the  policies  that  bear  most  directly  on 
people’s lives, for example in public investment and 
the delivery of essential services. Our new report, 
How’s Life in Your Region?, finds that using re-

2

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

“Inter-regional disparities have increased sharply, both in countries 
which have been severely affected by the downturn, like the Slovak 
Republic, and in others that largely escaped it, like Poland.”

Ángel  Gurría  has  been  OECD 

Secretary-General  since  2006, 
following a distinguished career 
in  public  service,  including  serving  as 
Mexico’s  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
from  1994-98  and  as  Minister  of 
Finance  and  Public  Credit  from  1998-
2000.  Under  his  leadership,  the  OECD 
has  reinforced  its  role  as  a  forum  for 
global  debate  on  economic  policy, 
expanded  its  membership  to  include 
Chile,  Estonia,  Israel  and  Slovenia  and 
strengthened links with major emerging 
economies such as Brazil, China, India, 
Indonesia and South Africa. Mr. Gurría is 
a member of the International Advisory 
Board  of  Governors  of  the  Centre  for 
International  Governance  Innovation, 
based in Canada. He holds a B.A. degree 
in Economics from UNAM (Mexico), and 
an M.A. degree in Economics from Leeds 
University (UK).

gional well-being metrics can help policymakers 
prioritise  policy  interventions  where  improve-
ments  are  needed  and  exploit  synergies  among 
sectoral policies. 

There is also a role for regional and local authori-
ties in adapting national policies to the needs of 
specific places. Some policies are best left with na-
tional governments, for example, labour migration, 
which may be good for aggregate performance and 
beneficial  for  those  involved,  yet  detrimental  to 
regions that lose skilled labour. But policies to im-
prove information on jobs, labour-market match-
ing, training and subsidies to employers may be 
better designed at regional or local level. At the 
very least, there needs to be scope for local adapta-
tion. 

Where do regions and regional policy fit in 
the policy mix the OECD would recommend 
to  countries  seeking  to  boost  growth  and 
jobs? 

A growing body of OECD work has underscored 
the limits of one-size-fits-all policies. Traditional 
approaches are reaching their limits: there is less 
scope today for using macroeconomic instruments 
to stimulate growth or for fiscal easing and even 
unconventional monetary instruments like “quan-
titative easing” can only go so far. 

Our work suggests two things. First, even within 
countries, the barriers to growth differ considera-
bly from one region to another: the obstacles facing 
major cities often differ systematically from those 
facing smaller cities, while rural places face their 
own challenges. Secondly, we should pay increas-
ing attention to the trade-offs that can be made 
between different policy goals and the potential 

complementarities from taking an integrated ap-
proach. The benefits are often most visible – and 
manageable – at the regional or local level. For ex-
ample, cities and regions are well-placed to identify 
the advantages of pursuing environmental and eco-
nomic goals in tandem, rather than seeing them as 
at odds with each other. 

What will be the main new challenges facing 
local  and  regional  authorities  in  Europe, 
and their citizens, in coming years? 

The major challenges we face are not so new: envi-
ronmental degradation, demographic change and 
rising inequalities, to name but three. What has 
changed is the context in which we confront them. 
The crisis has exacerbated problems like jobless-
ness and poor social cohesion. It has also consid-
erably damaged people’s trust in government and 
other institutions and eroded their faith that they 
can fix these problems. Most immediately, the cri-
sis has squeezed the resources available to regional 
and local authorities. Public investment across the 
OECD fell by 21% during 2009-12. This means 
that a great deal of needed and potentially growth-
enhancing investment is being postponed or aban-
doned, hurting future growth and service delivery. 
Since almost three-quarters of public investment 
in the OECD is undertaken by sub-national au-
thorities, this represents a particularly important 
challenge.

Unfortunately, a slow economic recovery will im-
pose tight fiscal constraints for the foreseeable fu-
ture. Many regions are finding it hard to keep up 
with a rising demand for public services, let alone 
invest for the future. Local and regional authori-
ties thus need to do more – and better – with less. 
The OECD has worked hard with countries and 

regions on the management of public investment 
across different levels of government. Last March, 
the OECD Council endorsed a Recommendation 
on  Effective  Public  Investment  across  Levels  of 
Government which should help governments as-
sess the strengths and weaknesses of their public 
investment capacity and set priorities for improve-
ment.

How  do  you  see  the  future  of  European 
regional  policy  after  2014  and  its  role  in 
supporting economic recovery? 

The squeeze on public investment makes structur-
al funds all the more important. Cohesion policy 
will make available up to EUR 351.8 billion to in-
vest in European regions and cities between now 
and 2020. In many places, such funds are crucial to 
sustaining even minimal levels of investment and 
with so much European policy oriented towards 
fiscal consolidation, the role of regional policy as 
an economic pillar can only grow. 

As you know, the new programming period has 
involved changes to make regional policy better 
targeted, more results-oriented and more efficient. 
We welcome the attempt to balance stronger top-
down  control  mechanisms,  such  as  greater  use 
of conditionality requirements, with a degree of 
managerial decentralisation. In the end, though, it 
will be up to national governments and the regions 
to make the best use of these funds: where they 
approach the new rules in a formalistic fashion, 
looking for the easiest ways to access funds, the re-
sults will probably be disappointing. By contrast, 
where cohesion investments are based on serious 
analysis of regional needs and potential, the new 
arrangements should help to ensure – and, later 
on, to reward – better designed investments. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 3

open daYs 2014

oPen daYs 2014

Interview with Marek Wozniak, COTER Chairman 

Growing together – smart investment 
for people
on thE occasion of thE joint cotEr-rEgi mEEting and thE opEn days 2014, wE mEt with marEk wozniak (pl/Epp), chair of thE 

committEE of thE rEgions’ commission for tErritorial cohEsion (cotEr). hE prEsEntEd his prioritiEs for thE coming months, as wEll 
as nEw possibilitiEs for coopEration bEtwEEn thE cor and thE EuropEan parliamEnt’s committEE for rEgional dEvElopmEnt (rEgi).  
marEk wozniak, who is also prEsidEnt of thE wiElkopolska rEgion in poland, strEssEd that “wE would likE to assEss thE involvEmEnt of local 
and rEgional authoritiEs in thE programming, implEmEntation, and possiblE rE-programming of thE partnErship agrEEmEnts and opErational 
programmEs  and  put  forward  appropriatE  rEcommEndations  in  casE mEmbEr statEs  fail  to  comply  with  thEsE  provisions.” hE  agrEEd  that 
coopEration bEtwEEn thE cotEr and rEgi should continuE and hElp providE bEttEr policy rEcommEndations, inspirEd by thE grassroots lEvEl 
of politics, to thE EuropEan lEgislativE procEss.

What are your political priorities during the 
new legislative term? 

One of the Committee of the Regions’ key expec-
tations for the new EU’s legislative term is to create 
more and better jobs through sustainable and ter-
ritorially balanced growth. In this context, there 
is a need to use the mid-term review of the multi-
annual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020 to 
examine the EU’s increasing difficulties in meet-
ing its legal obligations. This should ensure that 
the budget corresponds to the evolving strategic 
priorities of the Union. One can thus counter the 
increasing regional disparities that pose a serious 
threat to territorial cohesion by adding a territo-
rial dimension to Europe’s growth and jobs strat-
egy and monitoring the necessary steps at EU level. 
We call on the Commission to present a White 
Paper on territorial cohesion and an integrated EU 
urban agenda to reinforce the concept of economic, 
social and territorial cohesion. One should keep in 
mind that subsidiarity and multilevel governance 
go hand in hand with strong local and regional self-
government. 

Could you give us some concrete examples 
of mutual inspiration?

The Committee of the Regions’ and the European 
Parliament’s visions of the future of cohesion pol-
icy post-2013 were similar and mutually inspired, 
which resulted in common views on the main ob-
jectives: a new category of “transition regions”, the 
enshrinement of multilevel governance and part-
nership principles, more flexibility in the thematic 

4

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

concentration  of  the  various  funds  on  Europe 
2020,  the  introduction  of  a  Common  Strategic 
Framework as well as strengthening the territorial 
dimension of cohesion policy. Under the current 
Cooperation Agreement with the European Par-
liament, this approach will be further reinforced 
with the aim of making a better contribution to 
the EU legislative process, mainly through closer 
collaboration between the rapporteurs of both in-
stitutions as well as joint activities of REGI and 
the COTER.

assembly of regional and local representatives, we 
believe that it is important for the Committee of 
the Regions to launch a debate on how to find the 
right means to foster economic, social and territo-
rial cohesion. This could be, for instance, another 
interesting topic to consider for joint REGI-CO-
TER meetings in the future, which would entail 
a  discussion  about  a  place-based  approach  and 
about meeting performance-orientation criteria as 
well as assessing regional performance beyond the 
current GDP-based approach. 

What  kind  of  synergies  and  political 
impact  would  you  expect  from  enhanced 
cooperation  between  the  COTER  and  REGI 
in the future?

In recent years the annual joint COTER-REGI 
meetings  have  proved  to  be  a  great  success  and 
strengthened cooperation between the members 
of the two bodies. One of our common objectives 
could be to follow up politically the implementa-
tion of the European Investment and Structural 
Funds according to the principles enshrined in the 
Regulations. In particular we would like to assess 
the involvement of local and regional authorities 
in the programming, implementation, and possi-
ble re-programming of the partnership agreements 
and  operational  programmes  and  put  forward 
appropriate  recommendations  in  case  Member 
States fail to comply with these provisions.

While having an eye on the future, we already en-
visage starting a forward-looking debate as part 
of the next “Cohesion Policy Cycle”. As a political 

Marek Wozniak

Analysis of the impact of CoR’s 
opinions 
Once  a  year  the  Committee  submits  a  re-

More flexibility in the thematic 
concentration of the EU funds

In relation to the architecture and types of regions, 
a new category of “transition regions” has been cre-
ated. Moreover, CoR members have succeeded in 
convincing the European Parliament and Council 
to introduce greater flexibility in the thematic con-
centration of the various EU funds. Contrary to 
the previous financing period, the Common Provi-
sions Regulation (CPR) now also covers the rural 
development fund (EAFRD) and the maritime/
fisheries fund (EMFF), and a Common Strategic 
Framework (CSF) has been introduced to facili-
tate coordination between them. In addition, the 
European Social Fund (ESF) will be covered by 
the CPR and the CSF. The CoR has also man-
aged to convince the European Parliament and the 
Council not to put local and regional authorities on 
an equal footing with social partners and NGOs, 
contrary  to  the  period  2007-2013.  The  EGTC 
(European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation) 
regulation has also been reviewed in line with the 
CoR’s request and the institutional role of the CoR 
has been strengthened.

In environmental policy, and more particularly in 
the work on the Seventh Environmental Action 
Framework,  it  can  be  noted  that  the  European 

port on the impact of its opinions to the 
plenary session. This report summarises 
the CoR’s impact in the major fields of its politi-
cal activity. The impact of the CoR political and 
consultative works is not always clearly measur-
able in figures and numbers. However, a number 
of different types of “impact” have to be identified, 
such as concrete proposals of the CoR taken up 
in  final  legislation;  policy  recommendations  of 
the CoR considered in proposed legislation or in 
legislative procedures; the major contribution of 
CoR positions to ongoing political debates; as well 
as references made to CoR positions in other EU 
documents, e.g. resolutions of the European Par-
liament and the involvement of CoR rapporteurs 
or commission chairpersons in inter-institutional 
events.  The  report  is  based  on  information  col-
lected throughout the year by persons responsible 
for the file; on reports from the European Com-
mission on the follow-up to the Committee of the 
Regions’ opinions as well as on the analysis of the 
different stages of the inter-institutional develop-
ments. The impact report is drawn up by the ad-
ministration and discussed in meetings of the CoR 
commissions before being submitted to the CoR 
plenary assembly. 

In the 2013 impact report 70 opinions with some 
significant impact were taken into account. Last 
year  has  been  particularly  busy  as  intense  ne-
gotiations linked to a new programming period 
and consequently to different EU’s funding pro-
grammes came to a close. The CoR has been able 
to play a relevant and coherent institutional role in 
many fields, in particular on the future of the EU 
budget, the new Cohesion Policy, the Seventh En-
vironmental Action Framework, the cultural and 
creative sectors and on the reform of the Common 
Agricultural Policy, to mention just a few.

As in 2012, one of the key priorities in 2013 con-
cerned the legislative package for Cohesion Policy 
for  2014-2020  and  its  potential  impact  on  the 
economic,  social  and  territorial  development  of 
Europe. The CoR adopted seven opinions related 
to the reform of cohesion policy. Throughout the 
year, CoR members contributed actively to the po-
litical debate and to the inter-institutional negotia-
tions. Even though the Committee of the Regions’ 
call for an increase in the 2014-2020 budget has 
not been taken into account, the final outcome of 
the negotiations on cohesion policy has been very 
positive.

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

Parliament took indeed on board a number of sug-
gestions from the CoR. The Parliament calls for 
“close cooperation with the Committee of the Re-
gions” and reflects several key recommendations of 
the opinion such as the call for more dissemination 
of best practices between both Member States and 
local and regional authorities (LRAs), the call on 
the European Commission to examine the greater 
participation by LRAs when defining environmen-
tal policy and the need to help improve the knowl-
edge and capacity of LRAs involved in implement-
ing environmental legislation. On top of that, The 
Seventh Environmental Action Programme refers 
explicitly to LRAs including to their responsibility 
for decision on use of land and marine areas. The 
CoR/EC Joint Technical Platform for Coopera-
tion on the Environment, co-launched by the CoR 
and DG Environment in December 2012 has been 
explicitly referred to in the Seventh Environmental 
Action Programme, which reflects the CoR’s suc-
cessful long-term commitment in this area.

One lesson learned from the last impact report is 
that the CoR’s activities should focus on locally 
and regionally relevant topics, with clear and con-
cise proposals in the decision-making process and 
based on a long-term commitment from the CoR 
in the policy field.  

Regions and Cities of euRope 5

Regions eligiblefor Structural Funds(ERDF and ESF) bycategory, 2014-2020CategoryLess developed regions (GDP per  head < 75% of EU-27 average)Transition regions (GDP per  head between >= 75% and < 90% of EU-27 average)More developed regions (GDP per  head >= 90% of EU-27 average)Source: Eurostat, DG REGIO0500 Km© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundariesRoadmap for OPEN DAYS 2015

13th European Week of
Regions and Cities
Brussels 12 - 15 October 2015

OPEN DAYS in figures

6000

Participants

>200

Regional partners 
+ cities

100

Workshops

>250

Journalists

30

Venues Brussels

>300

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

6

Local events all
over Europe

12-15 October 

The European Week of Regions and 
Cities in Brussels. The annual four-day 
event is an inter-institutional platform for 
political communication, a means of 
capacity-building for regional and local 
stakeholders, and facilitates communication 
on EU affairs at local level. OPEN DAYS makes 
use of important moments in the EU agenda to 
get the message across to EU decision makers 
regions and cities make a difference in effective 
EU policy-making and funding. The OPEN DAYS 
bring officials at EU, national, regional and local 
level together in order to exchange experiences and 
new ideas and to make sure that public money is well 
spent.

December/January 

Representatives from Europe's regions 
and cities gather in Brussels for the 
kick-off meeting of the OPEN DAYS – an 
annual event organised by the European 
Commission Directorate-General for 
Regional and Urban Policy and the 
Committee of the Regions, during which event 
partners have the opportunity to showcase 
their capacity to create growth and jobs, 
implement European Union cohesion policy, and 
prove the importance of the local and regional 
level for good European governance.  

Regions and cities matter because sub-national public 
authorities in the EU are responsible for one third of 
public expenditure and two thirds of public 
investments. At the heart of EU funding, there are 320 
cohesion policy programmes worth EUR 366 billion, which 
aim at ensuring smart, sustainable and inclusive 
development in all regions and cities.

February/April  

The programme of 

the event becomes more 

concrete. Around 100 workshops are 
organised by over 200 selected 
partners, focusing on three specific 
themes. Over the years, the OPEN 
DAYS has grown into the key event 
on EU regional policy.

May/July

Preparatory 

arrangements for over 30 venues 

in Brussels and focus on the 

promotion of the event, including 

a media programme which would 

be offered to participating 

journalists from all over Europe. 

The new OPEN DAYS posters are 

available at the Committee of 

the Regions!

Opening session in the 

European Parliament

Roundtable with journalists

1

2

O

c

t

o

b

e

r

er 

b

5 Octo

3-1

1

100 workshops and 

various networking 

activities

July

The programme is published on the 

event website and online registration 

opens for around 6000 participants per 

edition. 

September/November

Local events "Europe in my 

region/city"

In an attempt to bring the messages of 

the OPEN DAYS closer to Europe's citizens, 

each participating region and city 

organises at least one local event on their 

home ground, to be held between September 

and November, under the heading "Europe in 

my region/city". 

Many independent partners join this exercise of 

decentralised communication, and the European 

Cooperation Day events are also associated. 

According to estimates, the local events reach out to 

about 200,000 participants.

Local events are organised around the annual thematic 

priorities of OPEN DAYS. They are aimed at the general 

public, potential beneficiaries of EU regional policy, expert 

audiences, academics and the media and can take various 

formats such as conferences, workshops, radio/TV broadcasts 

or exhibitions.

opendays@cor.europa.eu

REGIO-OPENDAYS@ec.europa.eu

@EU_Regional 

@EU_CoR

#euopendays

www.flickr.com/photos/opendays

www.opendays.europa.eu

EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

 
Roadmap for OPEN DAYS 2015

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

12-15 October 

The European Week of Regions and 

Cities in Brussels. The annual four-day 

event is an inter-institutional platform for 

political communication, a means of 

capacity-building for regional and local 

stakeholders, and facilitates communication 

on EU affairs at local level. OPEN DAYS makes 

use of important moments in the EU agenda to 

get the message across to EU decision makers 

regions and cities make a difference in effective 

EU policy-making and funding. The OPEN DAYS 

bring officials at EU, national, regional and local 

level together in order to exchange experiences and 

new ideas and to make sure that public money is well 

spent.

December/January 

Representatives from Europe's regions 

and cities gather in Brussels for the 

kick-off meeting of the OPEN DAYS – an 

annual event organised by the European 

Commission Directorate-General for 

Regional and Urban Policy and the 

Committee of the Regions, during which event 

partners have the opportunity to showcase 

their capacity to create growth and jobs, 

implement European Union cohesion policy, and 

prove the importance of the local and regional 

level for good European governance.  

Regions and cities matter because sub-national public 

authorities in the EU are responsible for one third of 

public expenditure and two thirds of public 

investments. At the heart of EU funding, there are 320 

cohesion policy programmes worth EUR 366 billion, which 

aim at ensuring smart, sustainable and inclusive 

development in all regions and cities.

13th European Week of

Regions and Cities

Brussels 12 - 15 October 2015

OPEN DAYS in figures

6000

Participants

>200

Regional partners 

+ cities

100

Workshops

>250

Journalists

30

Venues Brussels

>300

Local events all

over Europe

Opening session in the 

European Parliament

Roundtable with journalists

1
2
O
c
t
o
b
e
r

July

The programme is published on the 
event website and online registration 
opens for around 6000 participants per 
edition. 

February/April  

The programme of 

the event becomes more 

concrete. Around 100 workshops are 

organised by over 200 selected 

partners, focusing on three specific 

themes. Over the years, the OPEN 

DAYS has grown into the key event 

on EU regional policy.

May/July

Preparatory 
arrangements for over 30 venues 
in Brussels and focus on the 
promotion of the event, including 
a media programme which would 
be offered to participating 
journalists from all over Europe. 
The new OPEN DAYS posters are 
available at the Committee of 
the Regions!

er 
b

5 Octo
3-1
1

100 workshops and 

various networking 

activities

September/November

Local events "Europe in my 
region/city"
In an attempt to bring the messages of 
the OPEN DAYS closer to Europe's citizens, 
each participating region and city 
organises at least one local event on their 
home ground, to be held between September 
and November, under the heading "Europe in 
my region/city". 
Many independent partners join this exercise of 
decentralised communication, and the European 
Cooperation Day events are also associated. 
According to estimates, the local events reach out to 
about 200,000 participants.
Local events are organised around the annual thematic 
priorities of OPEN DAYS. They are aimed at the general 
public, potential beneficiaries of EU regional policy, expert 
audiences, academics and the media and can take various 
formats such as conferences, workshops, radio/TV broadcasts 
or exhibitions.

opendays@cor.europa.eu
REGIO-OPENDAYS@ec.europa.eu
@EU_Regional 
@EU_CoR
#euopendays
www.flickr.com/photos/opendays

www.opendays.europa.eu

EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

Regions and Cities of euRope 7

 
SpecIal Feature   |   euRope of the futuRe

Committee of the Regions, Brussels 
– at the heart of the European 
institutions

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r
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h
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8

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

 
 
 
 
Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

Europe of the future

Expectations for next EU legislative mandate

Following the european elections and ahead oF the Formation oF the next european commission, the committee oF the regions 

has put Forward its expectations and proposals For the new eu legislative mandate. representatives oF eu cities and regions 
argue that the main objectives must be to create more and better jobs, and generate territorially-balanced growth to strengthen 

citizens’ trust in the european project. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 9

euroPe of The fuTure

Expectations for next EU legislative 
mandate
at its last plEnary sEssion, cor mEmbErs adoptEd a rEsolution sEtting forth thE political prioritiEs which, in thE cors’ viEw, should 

guidE thE work of thE nExt EuropEan commission’s and parliamEnt’s mandatEs. michEl lEbrun (bE/Epp), nEwly-ElEctEd prEsidEnt of 
thE cor, statEd, “on thE EvE of thE nEw Eu lEgislativE mandatE, i vEry much wElcomE thE contribution of our assEmbly to influEncE 
thE political agEnda of this nEw mandatE. thE guidElinEs prEsEntEd in this rEsolution will form thE basis of my futurE institutional contacts 
during this nExt sEmEstEr as cor prEsidEnt.” 

Investing for more growth and jobs 

Europe’s local and regional authorities have been hit 
hard by the crisis, leading to a significant reduction 
of  public  expenditure  despite  growing  financial 
demands  to  cope  with  high  unemployment  and 
social exclusion. Against this backdrop, Michael 
Schneider,  President  of  the  CoR’s  EPP  Group, 
stressed  that:  “As  we  enter  the  new  legislative 
mandate  for  the  EU,  we  cannot  forget  our 
responsibility  to  create  more  and  better  jobs  in 
Europe’s cities and regions. Economic reform and 
growth-friendly  budget  consolidation  must  be 
priorities for the coming months and years. We call 
on the Commission to consider more innovative 
and  ambitious  support  methods  for  EU  public 
investment and to enhance synergies between the 
EU, national and sub-national budgets.” 

The President of the CoR Socialists’ Group (PSE), 
Karl-Heinz Lambertz, insisted on the importance 
of  public  investment  for  cities  and  regions  and 
called for stronger flexibility in fiscal discipline: 
“Public  investment  is  a  top  priority  for  us.  The 
leverage  effect  of  public  investment,  two-thirds 
of  which  fall  under  the  responsibility  of  local 
authorities, should not be curtailed without any 
consideration  of  economic  common  sense.  This 
requires an adaptation of the Stability Pact. In the 
short term, we insist on the need to exclude from 
the  calculation  of  budget  deficits  national  and 
regional co-financing when it comes to EU funded 
investments. In the medium term, the Commission 
must submit proposals that consider the quality 
and long-term effect of public investment.” 

These  views  and  proposals  are  reflected  in  the 
resolution  which  also  calls  for  extending  the 
Europe 2020 project bonds initiative based on the 
results of the evaluation expected in 2015. 

Strengthening the territorial focus 
of EU policies 

The  CoR  reiterates  its  call  for  a  territorial 
dimension  to  be  introduced  on  the  occasion  of 
the  review  of  the  EU’s  growth  strategy.  It  also 
advocates closer involvement of local and regional 
authorities in the economic and financial policy 
coordination process (“European Semester”) and 
stresses that territorial impact assessments should 
be  mandatory  in  the  European’s  Commission’s 
impact analysis of new legislative proposals. The 
CoR  further  suggests  putting  special  emphasis 
on  the  development  of  cross-border  solutions, 
interregional  networking  and  macro-regional 
strategies by also extending the use of European 
Groupings  for  Territorial  Co-operation  as  an 
instrument for other EU policies. 

In this regards, the President of the ALDE Group, 
Bas Verkerk stated: “The EU must strengthen the 
territorial dimension in EU policies to facilitate 
regions and cities’ contribution to the EU growth 
strategy.”  He  further  insisted  on  the  CoR’s  call 
to  the  Commission  to  present  a  “White  Paper 
on  Territorial  Cohesion”  to  address  growing 
territorial  disparities  and  promote  urban/rural 
sustainable development through a White Paper 
on integrated urban development. 

Preparing the EU for new policy 
challenges 

strategy based on local and regional solutions for 
climate  change  (e.g.  Covenant  of  Mayors)  and 
further develop the partnership principle in this 
area.  It  also  invites  the  Commission  to  propose 
a proper rural development strategy based on an 
integrated  territorial  approach.  With  regard  to 
external  relations,  CoR  members  reiterate  their 
support to continuing the enlargement of the EU 
and stress that the EU must step up support to 
Eastern  Partnership  countries  to  promote  local 
democracy  and  decentralisation.  They  call  for 
developing tools to increase social and territorial 
cohesion  in  the  Mediterranean  and  ask  the 
Commission to expand the Local Administration 
Facility programme to EU’s southern neighbours. 

In a bid to strengthening citizens’ trust in the EU, 
CoR members encourage the Commission to co-
operate more closely with the CoR to implement 
a  genuine  decentralised  communication  policy 
at regional and local level. On this subject, Uno 
Silberg,  chair  of  the  CoR  European  Alliance 
Group,  pointed  out:  “While  we  have  endured  a 
hard-hitting financial and economic crisis, this has 
also contributed to the crisis of confidence in the 
EU. The European elections results demonstrate 
that Europe needs to change. We need to change 
the way we communicate and better explain what 
we are doing and what we have achieved. We have 
to rebuild trust with the citizens! That should be 
our main goal for the near future”. 

The  CoR  calls  on  the  Commission  to  work 
closely with cities and regions in their efforts to 
integrate migrants and urges for the development 
of a comprehensive migration policy. In the field 
of competitiveness, it asks for the development of 
a “regional Regulatory Fitness and Performance 
Programme”  (REFIT)  initiative  to  reduce 
administrative burden for SMEs, and to enhance 
the role of smart specialisation strategies to tackle 
the innovation divide between EU regions. The 
CoR  stresses  the  need  for  a  revised  EU  energy 

Also considering the role of the CoR in a longer 
term, Gordon Keymer, President of the European 
Conservatives  and  Reformists  Group  (ECR), 
emphasised that, “The EU must embrace localism 
during its next legislative mandate. This is key to 
sustainable growth and jobs and key to bringing 
the EU closer to the citizens. Even if it does not 
happen in this new EU legislative mandate, I would 
like to see the CoR given the powers to amend and 
delay EU legislation. A bottom-up approach is the 
only way forward for the EU.”  

10

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

We have to get more for each euro spent

Jyrki Katainen, designated Vice-President of the European Commission for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro

rEcEnt yEars, EuropE has bEEn hit by thE dEEpEst financial crisis sincE thE 1930s. thE social cost of thE rEcEssion has bEEn Enormous, and 
many fEEl that EuropE has failEd to safEguard stability and wElfarE. othErs fEEl that thEy havE had to pay for othErs’ mistakEs.

EuropE is not just a gEographical Entity: it is a commitmEnt to a sEt of valuEs which wE must nEvEr bE allowEd to takE for grantEd. in 
We  must  respond  to  their  concerns  and 

channel savings into infrastructure and industry, 
education, research and innovation.

bridge the divide. Our most important 
challenge  today  is  to  create  the  right 
conditions  for  sustainable  economic  recovery, 
growth and jobs. European regions and cities are 
crucial partners in our common efforts to find a 
way out of the crisis; they are places where new 
ideas and start-ups can grow, places of hope and 
faith in the future. To support this process, sound 
public finances and reforms are also needed at local 
and regional level, and should be aligned with the 
principle of fiscal responsibility. In times of budg-
etary constraint, we have to get more for each euro 
spent. European Structural and Investment Funds 
have a budget of EUR 351.8 billion (32.5% of the 
overall EU budget for 2014 to 2020) and are im-
portant tools for investment and innovation which 
can boost recovery, growth and social cohesion. 

We  can  now  see  signs  of  a  turnaround  in  the 
economy,  including  in  countries  hardest  hit  by 
the crisis. They have made a concerted effort to 
rebuild  their  economies,  in  very  difficult  social 
circumstances.  However,  recovery  is  still  fragile 
and  unemployment,  especially  among  young 
people, is still far too high. Strong policy action 
– at national and EU level – needs to continue. 
The three key words are investment, reform and 
stability.

First, growth and job creation require investment. 
For  investment  to  flow,  we  need  a  favourable 
business  environment  and  a  service-oriented 
public administration, also at national, local and 
regional level. We need a stable and robust banking 
sector  and  efficient  capital  markets  to  provide 
accessible credit for households and SMEs, and to 

Second, Member States must continue to reform 
their economies, boost competitiveness and create 
more dynamic and inclusive labour markets, which 
also applies to local and regional authorities. 

And third, building on past achievements, fiscal 
consolidation  needs  to  continue  to  address  the 
high levels of debt that still exist. However, fiscal 
strategies  must  be  both  growth-friendly  and 
fair.  They  must  focus  on  the  quality  of  public 
finances, rationalising current expenditure while 
maintaining targeted public investment in people 
as well as in projects. 

We need a return to greater public
investment to create jobs

Catiuscia Marini (IT/PES), first Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions 

It has become clear that purely austerity-based 

policies have produced a pervasive feeling of so-
cial malaise which has often resulted in hostility 
towards national and European institutions. The 
results of the European elections have shown that 
voters want a change of pace. This could be done 
by replacing austerity with initiatives supporting 
development and growth by making more and bet-
ter use of public investment and relaxing Growth 
and Stability Pact rules.

In recent years, local authorities have been pushed 
to take up a defensive position in order to comply 
with Stability Pact requirements by cutting back 
on public spending on investment. Slashing public 
investment  has  gradually  bled  the  European 

social  model  dry,  undermining  services  which 
are fundamental for people’s quality of life. This 
is particularly true for public services of general 
interest (public transport, the environment, school 
buildings and social housing) and sectors vital for 
local economies such as construction.

sectors through a more extensive system of social 
shock absorbers, and direct part of public demand 
to drive new business activities and support a new 
era of investment in infrastructure and in making 
areas safe. 

During  the  Italian  presidency  of  the  European 
Union, the Committee of the Regions and the new 
European Parliament could spearhead a return to 
greater public investment in order to create jobs 
and  lessen  the  unstable  employment  situations 
which women and young people have to live with, 
reduce the tax burden on labour and provide tax 
incentives  for  corporate  investment,  support 
the  restructuring  and  conversion  of  production 

We  need  to  make  it  very  clear  that  Structural 
Fund co-financing at all levels (national, regional, 
provincial and municipal) needs to be taken out 
of  the  equation  for  the  Growth  and  Stability 
Pact; this could get bogged-down infrastructure 
and  public  works  projects  going  again.  This 
“operational”  measure  could  be  a  tangible  and 
immediate way to leverage investment and bring 
about a change of pace. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 11

euRope of the futuRe

Individual national strategies 
need more integration

Petr Osvald (CZ/PES), first Vice-Chairman of the CoR’s COTER commission

For me, as the rapporteur on the Committee 

of the Regions’ opinion on European Terri-
torial Cooperation and 1st Vice-Chairman 
of the COTER commission, macro-regional strat-
egies are a very important element not just in the 
implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, but 
in ensuring that the EU starts to truly operate as 
a single entity. Although we are carrying out a raft 
of common policies, not without success, we are 
starting  to  see  national  interests  being  champi-
oned in key votes and decisions. Not surprisingly, 
this pursuit of national interests is all the keener 
the  greater  the  problems  that  countries  have  to 
sort out. No blame attaches to this; it is simply 
a rational way to behave, since each country is in 
a different economic and financial situation and 
therefore argues for the approach and solution to 
a problem that best suits itself. But why are we in 
that situation? As I see it, the fundamental prob-
lem, apart from the different economic and social 
circumstances  in  each  country,  is  that  national 
strategies are not coordinated across borders. 

And when I say strategies, I do not mean just the 
broad, overarching strategies, but above all quite 
specific ones, such as those for transport, energy, 
waste,  water,  for  supporting  enterprise,  science 

and research, and for emergency systems. It is in-
tegrating these strategies that would help to create 
a real single Union area. 

The newly formed macro-regions could be exactly 
what we need to achieve this kind of interconnec-
tion. But we cannot focus on just one set of issues; 
we  have  to  try  to  address  all  areas  of  life  in  the 
territory concerned. No easy task, of course. But 
I personally think that it is the supranational per-
spective of larger territorial entities that provides 
the challenging way forward that we need to adopt 
in order to create a shared EU space and so to im-
prove competitiveness and unleash the economic 
and social potential so far dormant.

But this is not just about macro-regions. Smaller 
cross-border  European  regions  also  contribute 
a great deal. They may be smaller, but this also 
means they can take a more practical and penetrat-
ing  approach  to  addressing  particular  problems 
and  adopting  measures.  The  advantage  of  these 
European regions is that they usually come into 
being in response to the needs of the public and of 
local and regional authorities: they are bottom-up 
initiatives, in other words. 

I personally am involved in work in the Danube-
Vltava European Region, which brings together 
neighbouring border regions of Bavaria, Austria 
and the Czech Republic. International coopera-
tion  is  particularly  desirable  in  areas  where  the 
Iron Curtain once stood. This is because the re-
gions here have different economic and social lev-
els and replacing a narrowly national perspective 
of  their  development  with  a  supranational  one 
could provide significant added value for the EU 
as a whole.

I should like to finish by stressing that interna-
tional territorial cooperation is a unique instru-
ment (and one that has no substitute) for creating 
and deepening a truly united European space and, 
as I wrote in my opinion on the European terri-
torial cooperation regulation: crossborder, trans-
national and interregional cooperation should not 
be focused, unlike other European structural and 
investment funds, on fulfilling the Europe 2020 
strategy as such, but on creating the conditions for 
its  achievement  and  for  interconnecting  Europe 
and its citizens. 

A local agenda for the new EU 
legislative mandate

Cllr Gordon Keymer (UK/ECR), President of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the Committee of the Regions 

We need a decentralised EU. Powers must 

not be concentrated in Brussels as this 
will be to the detriment of our liberal 
democratic principles. The EU must remain close 
to the citizens, which means ensuring that cities 
and regions are involved in the decision-making 
process.  Local  and  regional  authorities  must  be 
given the powers to amend and delay EU legisla-
tion through the CoR. Local and regional authori-
ties  are  the  level  of  governance  that  implement 
most EU legislation. We can see the local and re-
gional impact of the legislation produced in Brus-
sels and we know what works and what does not.

Also, we need a focus on better regulations, not 
more  regulations.  The  new  legislative  mandate 
must  focus  on  cutting-red  tape  and  reducing 
administrative  burdens.  The  success  of  the  EU 
must  be  measured  by  the  impact  it  is  having  in 
our cities and regions and not by the number of 
decisions taken. Better regulations would enable 
us to achieve a more business friendly environment, 
which is crucial to achieving sustainable growth 
and  jobs.  Our  resources  should  be  achieving 
impact on the ground rather than creating costly 
burdens and barriers to growth and jobs. In the 
new  legislative  mandate,  the  Commission  must 

dedicate at least its first year of work to reviewing 
EU regulations and their territorial impact.

In the new legislative mandate, we must also must 
ensure that matters are handled at the EU level 
only  what  absolutely  necessary.  This  principle 
is  enshrined  in  our  Treaties  as  the  subsidiarity 
principle and each decision taken at the EU level 
must go through a subsidiarity filter.

We  need  to  focus  on  delivering  modern  and 
efficient services to our citizens in a cost-efficient 
manner. For this, we need innovative solutions. In 

12

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

the regard, the full, timely and correct transposition 
and use of the provisions of new legislative package 
on public procurement is important, as is the use 
of the new procedure of “innovation partnerships”. 
This new procedure enables innovative small and 

medium sized enterprises to influence the design 
of procurements, and propose innovative solutions.

To ensure that our citizens are getting the most 
for  their  money,  we  must  couple  public  and 
private  investment  in  our  geographically  and 

demographically  challenged  regions  to  ensure 
balanced growth and jobs. We must also couple 
public and private investments to build resilience 
to disasters. It is far more cost-efficient to invest in 
resilience than it is to recover from a disaster. 

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

What we really need is policy innovation

Markku Markkula (FIN/EPP), Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions

manifEsto “towards a EuropEan sEnatE of thE rEgions” – with thEir wEll-groundEd alignmEnts havE linkEd thE grand Eu issuEs to thE 
crucial rolE of rEgions in EuropEan dEcision making. wE havE to support industry, innovation and EntrEprEnEurship as thE hard Eu policiEs. 

thE cor rEcEnt statEmEnts – thE athEns dEclaration “thE mid-tErm rEviEw of EuropE 2020” and thEn prEsidEnt valcÁrcEl siso’s farEwEll 
Markku Markkula – elected in June as the 

plans for the EU Flagship Initiatives for the next five 
years as part of a longer ten-year perspective such 
as in a “Decade for Innovation”. The CoR supports 
the establishment of a “Public Sector Innovation 
Platform” and urges more benchmarking and peer 
learning between regions and cities.

Placing  innovations  and  inventing  the  future  in 
the valued centre of politics served as another key 
element.  After Finland joined the EU in 1995, 
its  government  gave  the  Parliament  a  two-part 
report  “Finland  and  the  Future  of  Europe”  and 
“Skill and Fair Play – an Active and Responsible 
Finland”.    Processing  the  Parliament’s  response 
was organized through a special Committee for 
the Future with 17 MPs as members. 

1st Vice-President of the EPP Group – 
worries that the future is often taken too 
superficially in politics. It is easy to focus on the 
present of the governance and only in passing refer 
to expert foresight studies and use them to argue 
for the Good life. Instead, it is more difficult to de-
pict the complex global value networking and ways 
of influencing this.  

The former CoR President Valcárcel Siso, now the 
Vice-President of the European Parliament, during 
the  CoR  Plenary  20  June  stressed  that  the  key 
competences in the regions include “hard” policies 
such  as  industry,  entrepreneurship,  exports, 
innovation, and research and development.“ Why 
are  these  hard  policies  so  important?  With  the 
prolonged economic crisis, finding solutions to the 
grand societal challenges has become centrepiece – 
in political decision-making, as well as in research, 
education and innovation policies. 

Markku  Markkula  (FIN/EPP),  Vice-President 
of  the  Committee  of  the  Regions,  states  that 
predicting the future is not enough, what we really 
need is policy innovation. Decision makers need to 
be able to show how demanding societal challenges 
are met by means of well-argued change measures. 
We can achieve this with our active involvement 
in innovation. 

Placing innovation in the centre 
of politics

“Finland  had  made  significant  investments  in 
research and technology in the 1980’s. However, 
Finland’s economy was in severe crisis in the early 
1990’s.  Bolstering  innovativeness  was  of  prime 
importance,  in  other  words,  shifting  funding 
from  consumption  to  research  and  long-term 
investments”. 

Many leading politicians have served as members 
of  the  Committee  for  the  Future,  including  the 
former  Prime  Minister  and  the  new  Finnish 
EU  Commissioner  Jyrki  Katainen  as  the  chair 
of this Committee. At the same time, already in 
the 1990’s, technology assessment and innovation 
as concepts and practices were brought into the 
agenda of active political debate in Finland. 

Our insight in the Finnish Parliament was that 
also political decision-makers need to be actively 
engaged in inventing the future, not just predicting 
the future.

Implementing the CoR Athens’ 
Declaration 

 “Reviewing my nine years as the CoR member, 
starting as an alternate in 2006 and acting for eight 
years as an MP in Finland prior to that, much has 
changed in the EU policy. However, much more 
needs to be changed, since small changes do not 
suffice  in  managing  the  on-going  paradigmatic 
change. As we stated in the Athens Declaration, 
the  EU  needs  to  encourage  more  bottom-up 
implementation  and  give  Europe  2020  a  strong 
territorial dimension. This means making multi-
level governance the standard approach for Europe 
2020”, stressed Markku Markkula. In the Athens 
Declaration,  the  CoR  proposed  renewed  action 

Markkula  would  like  to  integrate  this  to  the 
recommendations made by Valcárcel Siso: “The 
CoR might gradually develop into the ‘European 
Senate of the Regions’. This Assembly of political 
representatives  of  the  EU’s  LRAs  would  be  a 
‘Reflection Chamber’ with semi-legislative powers, 
rather than a fully-fledged third chamber at EU 
level.” Markkula would gladly see the CoR journey 
develop in that direction “through the renewal of 
the  role  of  the  CoR’s  Europe  2020  Monitoring 
Platform  and  the  structure  of  its  Steering 
Committee,  on  which  he  has  been  the  EPP 
representative”. Markkula continues: “Already by 
now, the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform carries 
out high-level expert hearings, surveys and other 
analytical studies. My proposal is to transform it 
into the ‘CoR Platform for Inventing the Future’. 

In  all  European  regions,  we  require  in-depth 
knowledge  of  future  opportunities  and  means 
of  accomplishing  the  desired  changes.  CoR  is 
naturally an operator that has the instruments to 
produce this knowledge. To secure the impacts, 
we the members have to be active creators of the 
knowledge of the future – naturally by relying on 
the top expertise available. Markkula concludes by 
quoting Jean-Claude Juncker’s EPP CoR Poznan 
Summit  speech  in  April:  “As  President  of  the 
European  Commission,  I  will  promote  regional 
and  local  authorities’  involvement  in  decision 
making into the future. I will fight for a strong 
role for the Committee of the Regions throughout 
the  legislative  process  and  I  will  work  closely  
with you.” 

Regions and Cities of euRope 13

PoliCY analYsis

The European Council’s Strategic 
Agenda and Europe 2020: A regional 
perspective
On 26-27 June 2014, at its first meeting fol-

Term Assessment Report2 stress the need to adapt 
the  strategy  to  existing  regional  differences  in 
socio-economic conditions and growth potential. 

falls short of full involvement of local and regional 
authorities, both in terms of design and implemen-
tation5. 

lowing the election of the new European 
Parliament, the European Council adopt-
ed a “Strategic Agenda for the Union in Times of 
Change”1 (SA). The Strategic Agenda sees the new 
legislative cycle as “a moment of political renewal”, 
making it clear that “the first purpose of the Union’s 
work over the coming years must be to equip our so-
cieties for the future and to foster confidence”. It sets 
five priorities: jobs, growth and competitiveness; 
empowering  and  protecting  all  citizens;  an  En-
ergy Union with a forward-looking climate policy; 
freedom, security and justice; and the Union as a 
strong global actor.

With respect to growth and jobs, climate and ener-
gy, employment and social inclusion, the SA refers 
to the ongoing review of the Europe 2020 strategy 
as an occasion to bring the strategy fully in line 
with the priorities set in the SA. 

Amongst other things, the SA addresses the issue 
of “facilitating long-term investments”, more spe-
cifically, “overdue investment needs in transport, 
energy  and  telecom  infrastructure  as  well  as  in 
energy efficiency, innovation and research, skills, 
and education”. 

Although the SA sets very general guidelines and 
does not anticipate the outcome of the review of 
Europe 2020, some key proposals the Committee 
of the Regions has made for the mid-term review 
of the strategy would seem to be crucial in order to 
translate the SA into practice. 

To this end, the Committee advocates giving Eu-
rope 2020 a territorial dimension by setting re-
gionally differentiated goals and targets. So far, 
the EU Europe 2020 headline targets have only 
been differentiated at the national level and many 
regions have seen them as either too ambitious or 
not ambitious enough3. Moreover, in some cases 
the current national targets do not cumulatively 
reach the overall EU target4.

The CoR proposes that the target-setting process 
at national level involve the local and regional au-
thorities in a mixed bottom-up and top-down ap-
proach. This proposal is consistent with the place-
based approach of EU cohesion policy – because it 
builds on specific regional assets – and would con-
fer much stronger credibility on the Europe 2020 
targets, at both the national and the EU levels. 

Partnership and multi-level governance 

The involvement of local and regional authorities 
and other relevant partners in the design and im-
plementation of a renewed Europe 2020 strategy is 
the other main pillar of the CoR proposal. 

To date, involvement of this kind has occurred in 
a number of cases. Overall, it is fair to say that it 
is increasing. However, the current state of affairs 

A territorial dimension to make Europe 
2020 targets more credible

2  http://portal.cor.europa.eu/europe2020/Pages/

MTAR.aspx

The CoR’s Athens Declaration on the mid-term 
review of Europe 2020 and its accompanying Mid-

1  The agenda is annexed to the European Council 

Conclusions (26-27 June 2014) and can be found at 
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/
docs/pressdata/en/ec/143478.pdf

14

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

3 

 As shown by the CoR Surveys on the seven Europe 
2020 Flagship Initiatives (http://portal.cor.europa.eu/
europe2020/Surveys/Pages/welcome.aspx) 

4  The implementation of the Europe 2020 targets and 
Flagship Initiatives was reviewed last March in both 
the CoR’s Mid-term Assessment Report on Europe 
2020 (http://portal.cor.europa.eu/europe2020/
Pages/MTAR.aspx) and the European Commission’s 
Stock-taking Communication on Europe 2020 (http://
ec.europa.eu/europe2020/europe-2020-in-a-nutshell/
index_en.htm)

Yet  local  and  regional  authorities  have  compe-
tences in most policy fields relevant to the SA and 
Europe 2020. At the EU level, they carry out two 
thirds of public direct investments and one third of 
the overall public expenditure. Local and regional 
authorities have greater knowledge of the specific 
policy needs and potentialities of their territories 
than their national governments. Being closer to 
the public than the higher levels of government, 
they are also in the best possible position to listen 
to people’s needs and engage them in a political 
dialogue.

The  proposals  made  by  the  Committee  of  the 
Regions include providing Europe 2020 with ad-
equate funding, for instance through innovative 
solutions involving the private sector, improving 
administrative capacity and cutting red tape at all 
levels. The Strategic Agenda states that “the cred-
ibility of the Union depends on its ability to en-
sure adequate follow-up on decisions and commit-
ments. This requires strong and credible institu-
tions, but will also benefit from closer involvement 
of national parliaments”. 

Indeed,  multi-level  governance,  a  territorial  di-
mension, adequate funding and better adminis-
trative capacity will bring value added in terms of 
effectiveness as well as of ownership of the Europe 
2020 strategy. It is a pity that the EU Heads of 
State and Government failed to mention regional 
parliaments and, more broadly, local and regional 
authorities, in this context. In view of the decisions 
to be taken by the new Commission and the Eu-
ropean Council at the end of the mid-term review, 
expected in early 2015, the Committee of the Re-
gions will set out its proposals in more detail in a 
“Blueprint for a renewed Europe 2020” to be pub-
lished in December 2014. 

5  These trends are documented in the annual CoR 

Monitoring Reports on Europe 2020 (http://portal.
cor.europa.eu/europe2020/pub/Pages/welcome.aspx), 
in particular, with respect to the preparation of the EU 
Member States’ National Reform Programmes.  

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

European Quality 
of Government index, 2013

Standard deviation, range from poor quality
(negative) to high quality (positive)

< -1.75

-0.25 – 0.25

-1.75 – -1.25

0.25 – 0.75

-1.25 – -0.75

0.75 – 1.25

-0.75 – -0.25

< 1.25

EU = 0

0

500 Km

© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries

Absorption of Cohesion
Policy funding and
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Total absorption rate of Cohesion Policy funding 2007-2013  by 21/05/2014  (%)

Absorption of funding and project selection for the 2007 - 2013
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Regions and Cities of euRope 15

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Crisis in ukraine and easTern ParTnershiP

Decentralisation is key  
for the European integration  
process of Ukraine

rEforms. at thE invitation of volodymyr hroysman, ukrainE’s dEputy primE ministEr, prEsidEnt lEbrun was lEading a dElEgation of 
cor mEmbErs. 

on 4 july, michEl lEbrun, prEsidEnt of thE cor, visitEd kiEv discussing thE ukrainian govErnmEnt’s proposals for dEcEntralisation 
“From the beginning, we have supported the 

trative and fiscal decentralisation, and of building 
closer links with citizens”. 

democratic process for reforming Ukraine. 
The future of this country is found within 
Europe and European regional and local authori-
ties  are  ready  to  contribute  to  this  challenging 
process”, stated Michel Lebrun, President of the 
CoR. Ukraine signed an Association Agreement 
with the EU in June and the government is under-
taking significant reform including the promotion 
of local self-governance by decentralising powers 
towards local authorities, as stressed by the new 
President Poroshenko. During his meeting with 
deputy  Prime  Minister  Hroysman,  President 
Lebrun stated that, “Your reform is ambitious be-
cause it is grounded on the subsidiarity principle 
and inspired by the Multi-Level Governance ap-
proach, which are key to assuring both territorial 
economic and social development and democracy. 
We are ready to share our experience of adminis-

The CoR has set out a number of proposals that 
can  contribute  to  the  reform  process.  To  meet 
the goals, it suggests that the separation of pow-
ers between State and local/regional governments 
should be strengthened by assuring further demo-
cratic  accountability  to  regional  and  provincial 
leaders  who  should  be  able  to  directly  work  for 
the territorial interests and respecting the rights of 
minorities. Other proposals include the realloca-
tion of financial and human resources to the local 
and regional level; a further definition of functions 
and competencies of the new executive bodies of 
regional and district councils, a wider consultation 
involving all stakeholders and civil society and the 
possibility for regional and local authorities to use 
EU’s tools for territorial cooperation such as the 
European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation 

(EGTC). The CoR also offers to the regional and 
local authorities of Ukraine a platform to exchange 
best practices in the context of the Eastern part-
nership through the CORLEAP, the joint assem-
bly where Ukrainian regional and local authorities 
count on 3 members. The CoR delegation also met 
members of the Ukrainian parliament as well as 
Mustafa Dzhemylyov leader of the Tatar commu-
nity. 

The  CoR  delegation  was  composed  of  Michel 
Lebrun  (BE/EPP),  CoR  President,  Arnoldas 
Abramavičius (LT/EPP), Mayor of Zarasai Dis-
trict  Municipaity,  Mick  Antoniw  (UK/PES), 
Member  of  the  National  Assembly  for  Wales, 
Pavel Branda (CZ/ECR), Deputy Mayor of Ra-
dlo, István Sértő-Radics (HU/ALDE), Mayor of 
Uszka and Uno Silber (EE/EA), Member of Kose 
Rural municipality Council. 

16

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

Ukraine will have to become  
a federation, or risk disappearing

Prof. Franz Schausberger (AT/EPP), Chair of the Institute of European Regions and former Minister-President of Salzburg and Member of the CoR

yEars of thE transition procEss in ukrainE, thE country’s top priority must bE to rEplacE thE cEntralist statE prEsidEntial systEm with a 
dEmocratic fEdEral onE. 

prEsEnt-day ukrainE will EithEr havE to bEcomE a fEdEration or ElsE risk bEing torn apart by its fEuding factions. following thE first fEw 
Today,  Ukraine  has  not  made  any  progress 

“standard-bearers of European values” in all cor-
ners of the continent and with all possible speed, 
the EU lost the ability to recognise national sen-
sitivities, established power structures and long-
standing features of traditional culture and iden-
tity, let alone incorporate them into its strategies.

in decentralisation, quite the reverse. The 
Orange Revolution, which raised so many 
hopes  and  expectations,  collapsed  in  complete 
disarray. The petty squabbles of its leaders, Victor 
Yushchenko and Julia Timoshenko, created fric-
tion and, at a time when Russia was nowhere near 
as strong as it is now, they failed to press ahead 
with the process of moving towards Europe and 
carrying out reforms that would bring peace to the 
divided nation. This was the major downfall of the 
pro-Europeans in Ukraine.

Anyone who, like myself, paid frequent visits to 
western Ukraine at that time will have observed 
that people there had no idea of what was going 
on in the east of the country or of what was in the 
minds  of  the  Russian  population.  No  one  ever 
went to that part of the country, with the excep-
tion of Crimea, which was seen as a cheap domestic 
seaside holiday destination.

There can be no justification whatsoever 
for Russia’s occupation of Crimea

Obviously, there can be no justification whatsoever 
for Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which is in fla-
grant defiance of international law. The fact that, 
at the start of the 21st century, part of the territory 
of a sovereign state has been annexed overnight 
cannot and will not be tolerated.  Nevertheless, 
we should not turn a blind eye to the fact that the 
“west” has also made crucial mistakes: as a result of 
its completely flawed neighbourhood policy with 
Ukraine, the European Union - alas, once again 
playing second fiddle to the United States - has 
played a decisive role in unleashing the greatest in-
ternational crisis the European continent has seen 
since the war in the Balkans. The reasons lie in 
failure on the part of US and EU foreign policy to 
understand the history of Ukraine. With the fer-
vour of missionaries determined to take over as the 

Democracy, human rights, plurality and a market 
economy  may  well  be  vitally  important  for  Eu-
rope,  but  in  a  country  with  an  average  monthly 
income of EUR 190 – with huge regional varia-
tions – there are bound to be other priorities. Rus-
sia’s counter-offer of economic aid worth EUR 10 
billion and cut-price Russian gas was always going 
to outdo the European proposal. Even though the 
new Ukrainian government has now signed the as-
sociation agreement, the country will not be a part 
of Europe for a very long time to come.

Given  that  Russia  views  Nato’s  expansion  east-
wards as a breach of contract on the part of the 
West,  it  hardly  equates  to  the  ideal  image  of  a 
“peace project” - as the EU would like to see it - if 
such an important neighbour as Russia is jealously 
excluded  from  enlargement  activities  that  en-
croach on what has historically been its sphere of 
influence. As a convinced European, it is depress-
ing to see that instead having a calming effect, this 
supposedly peaceful community is actually stok-
ing the tensions with what can only be described 
as a series of major faux pas on the part of Europe’s 
peace diplomats. Today, people in Ukraine are be-
ing killed needlessly, and mutual threats of tougher 
sanctions are never going to solve the problem. 

President Poroshenko’s peace plan 
already proposed decentralisation 
as a first step

Let  us  go  back  to  the  proposal  for  a  federal 
Ukraine mentioned at the beginning. The idea will 
meet with scepticism from the US and the EU, al-

though President Poroshenko’s peace plan already 
proposed decentralisation as a first step. One thing 
is clear: if the Russian population in the east is to 
be reconciled and united with the general govern-
ment, trust must be built up and their cultural, lin-
guistic and economic identity and self-government 
within the country guaranteed. This is the only 
way in which Ukraine will be able to preserve its 
present borders. Failing this, the pressure for se-
cession will continue to build up and the country 
will ultimately disintegrate. 

Following Russia’s annexation of the Autonomous 
Republic  of  Crimea,  Ukraine  continues  to  be  a 
centralist  presidential  state  with  24  oblasts  (re-
gions) and the city of Kiev, which has special sta-
tus. 78% of the population is Ukrainian and 17% 
Russian. Ukrainians make up the majority in all 
the oblasts, although the Russians have a sizeable 
minority (around 38%) in the oblasts of Lugansk 
and Donetsk, the bastions of the separatist move-
ment. The oblasts are merely administrative dis-
tricts of the central government, with governors 
nominated by the president. Obviously no govern-
ment, no matter what its colour, will readily con-
cede this power.

Constitutional reform will have to lead to the fed-
eralisation of this country, with its 46 million in-
habitants, possibly in several stages. The German 
or Austrian models might be suitable examples. 
The EU could play a useful advisory role here. The 
population of a region should at least be able to 
elect its own regional parliamentary assembly and 
thereby indirectly have a say in the choice of re-
gional government and governor. A second cham-
ber would create an opportunity for the regions to 
participate in the country’s political life at national 
level. All this must be accompanied by moves to 
strengthen  local  self-government  politically  and 
financially.  Present-day  centralist  Ukraine  will 
either have become a federation or else risk being 
torn apart by its feuding factions. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 17

CRisis in ukRaine and easteRn paRtneRship 

The first steps of cooperation 
with the Eastern Partnership countries

István Sertő-Radics (HU/ALDE), Mayor of Uszka

When  I  was  elected  chair  of  the  Com-

mittee of the Regions’ Commission for 
External  Relations  and  Decentralised 
Cooperation  (the  RELEX  commission,  which 
later became the CIVEX commission) in Febru-
ary 2008, my ambition was to support our politi-
cal relationships with the EU’s neighbours. Firstly, 
as mayor of a town very close to the border with 
Ukraine, I drew up an own-initiative opinion on 
Ukraine that pointed out Ukraine’s future in the 
European  Union  and  the  importance  of  decen-
tralisation and territorial reform in that country. 
I was delighted when, on 26 May 2008, the Polish 
and Swedish foreign affairs ministers presented 
their plan for the Eastern Partnership to the EU’s 
General Affairs and External Relations Council in 
Brussels. 

The  Commission  for  External  Relations  and 
Decentralised Cooperation took this historic ini-
tiative very seriously. We believed that close coop-
eration with the local and regional authorities of 
the six post-Communist countries of the Eastern 
Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Geor-
gia,  Moldova  and  Ukraine)  would  complement 
EU multilateral policies targeting the other neigh-
bouring countries, particularly the Northern Di-
mension policy launched in 1999 which included 
Russia and the Euro-Mediterranean policy which, 
transforming the 1995 Barcelona Process, was re-
vived as the Union for the Mediterranean in July 
2008. 

I  therefore  entered  into  political  dialogue  with 
representatives  of  the  neighbouring  countries’ 
authorities, and in the second half of 2008, after 
intense consultations, I was pleased that the po-
litical representatives of all six Eastern Partner-
ship countries voiced interest in and support for 
the establishment of a political assembly made up 
of representatives of the local and regional authori-
ties of the EU and the Partnership countries. Fur-
ther to a referral from the Czech presidency, I was 
also rapporteur for the Committee opinion on the 
Eastern Partnership. I integrated this request into 
our opinion, which was adopted by the assembly in 
April 2009, pointing out that the Committee “in-
tends to develop forms of closer cooperation with 
countries involved in the Eastern Partnership. The 
creation of an Eastern Europe and South Cauca-

sus Local and Regional Assembly (EaP LRA) as 
the institutional platform for a regular dialogue 
and cooperation could be a short-term objective for 
a formal cooperation after having succeeded to de-
velop concrete and tangible forms of cooperation” 
(see CdR 78/2009 fin).

It is interesting to note that the opinion adopted 
by the RELEX commission stressed that the crea-
tion of this Assembly “is” an objective of this co-
operation;  an  amendment  tabled  and  passed  on 
CoR  Plenary  put  the  verb  into  the  conditional. 
However, the original proposal was in line with 
European policy, and in particular with the wishes 
of the European Commission; the Communica-
tion on the Eastern Partnership (COM(2008) 823 
final, adopted on 3 December 2008) stated that 
the Commission “invites the participation of the 
Committee of the Regions (…) particularly in the 
work  under  thematic  platforms  on  Democracy, 
good governance and stability and on Contacts be-
tween people. The Commission further invites the 
Committee of the Regions to establish an Eastern 
Europe and South Caucasus Local and Regional 
Assembly”.

I prefer the term “assembly” 
to “conference”

Having received a request to this effect from the 
Partnership countries, and at the express invitation 
of the European Commission, we were prepared to 
establish a political assembly of local and regional 
authorities during the Czech presidency in spring 
2009. However, we could not secure an internal 
political consensus on this point, sometimes for 
personal or ideological reasons, sometimes owing 
to diverging geopolitical views which gave prefer-
ence to cooperation with Russia – it must be borne 
in mind that Russia invaded Georgia in August 
2008. Finally, some people believed strongly that 
an assembly with the Mediterranean countries had 
to be established before an assembly with the East-
ern Partnership countries. The Committee finally 
established  its  institutional  platform  for  coop-
eration with the Partnership countries three years 
later, in September 2011, under the name “Confer-
ence of the Regional and Local Authorities for the 
Eastern Partnership” (CORLEAP). 

In view of recent developments in Ukraine I must 
deplore the fact that the establishment of this po-
litical forum with the representatives of the towns 
and regions of the Eastern Partnership countries 
was delayed, and sometimes even questioned, not 
least  through  the  change  in  name.  I  prefer  the 
term “assembly” to “conference”: “assembly”, which 
is used in the context of our cooperation with the 
Euromed  countries  for  which,  in  January  2010, 
we set up the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and 
Local  Assembly  (ARLEM),  would  convey  more 
clearly the key political status of the Partnership 
countries and their future as EU members. Lastly, 
this terminology is a closer match for that used by 
the other political institutions, such as the Euro-
pean Parliament which set up its Euronest Parlia-
mentary Assembly bringing together MEPs and 
elected representatives of the EU’s eastern neigh-
bours. 

The  current  crisis  in  Ukraine  has  again  under-
scored the crucial importance of regionalisation 
and  decentralisation  in  the  eastern  post-Soviet 
countries  as  key  factors  in  geopolitical  stability 
and economic, social and political development. 
As mayor of a town on the border with Ukraine, 
I have direct experience of the fact that internal 
stability in the EU is partly dependent on stabil-
ity in our Eastern neighbours. Our relations with 
Ukraine have stepped up in recent months, dem-
onstrating that we can be still more proactive and 
not simply respond to political events in countries 
bordering on the EU. It is quite clear that the cur-
rent decentralisation problems are not new, and 
that we can be more closely associated in efforts 
to identify political solutions to stabilise the entire 
region. Nonetheless, I am pleased that the assem-
bly which we first set up six years ago is now get-
ting back on its feet and, after a rather stormy start, 
has found its place and achieved international and 
interinstitutional recognition. I trust that in 2015, 
we will be able to further develop our relationship 
with our eastern partners and with the European 
Commission, the Council and the European Par-
liament. I believe that we should also organise a 
joint  meeting  with  the  Euronest  Parliamentary 
Assembly, which could focus on developing cross-
border and regional cooperation and on territorial 
reform  and  decentralisation  in  the  Partnership 
countries. 

18

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

Time to enhance the Eastern Partnerships’
regional dimension – the Ukrainian example

Pavel Branda (CZ/ECR), Deputy Mayor of Rádlo

The Eastern Partnership, launched officially 

under the Czech Presidency during spring 
2009 and supported by the Committee of 
the Regions at its Prague Summit in May 2009, 
is an instrument for supporting closer cooperation 
between the EU and its eastern European partners 
(Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova 
and Ukraine). The recent developments in these 
countries, especially in Ukraine, call for the East-
ern Partnership to be strengthened so that a clear 
vision can be established of where the partnerships 
will lead to and what the ultimate purpose is. In 
the case of Ukraine, in my opinion, this would be 
the goal of full EU membership. 

A very important aspect of the Eastern Partner-
ship is its territorial dimension. The Committee 
of Regions could and should be more active, espe-
cially in the two following areas:

•	 Assistance	with	reforms	leading	to	decentral-

isation and democratisation;

•	 Cross-border	and	regional	cooperation	espe-

cially in people-to-people activities.

The  assistance  with  reforms  leading  to  decen-
tralisation in Ukraine was officially offered during 
the CoR mission to Ukraine in the beginning of 
June  this  year.  I  had  the  honour  of  accompany-
ing the newly elected CoR president during the 
meeting and also participating in the round table 
discussion on decentralisation and territorial co-
operation chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister 
of Ukraine – Minister of Regional Development 

Mr. Volodymyr Hroysman. I have been impressed 
by the strong determination to carry out the need-
ed reforms in a very quick manner. Nevertheless, 
reforms should not be carried out without wide 
consultation  with  all  stakeholders  –  especially 
regional  and  municipal  self-governments.  We 
have  designed  a  number  of  multi-level  govern-
ance models in the European Union. There is no 
perfect blueprint for decentralisation that would 
fit Ukraine perfectly. However, we can help our 
Ukrainian partners to learn methods that could 
be applied to devising an acceptable solution. Our 
individual regions and municipalities can also play 
a very important role by setting up specific bilat-
eral cooperation programmes. For example, my re-
gion in the Czech Republic, the Liberec region, is 
now setting up a cooperation programme with the 
Ivano-Frankivska oblast (region) in Ukraine. Mr. 
Martin Půta, the president of the Liberec region 
and member of the CoR has stated that: “We have 
benefited for a long time from partnerships with 
regions from the western part of Europe. We now 
feel that the time has come for us to give this as-
sistance to the regions in the East that face reforms 
that we went though not so long ago.” We are plan-
ning  to  organise  internships  for  administration 
officials, as well as cooperating in other strategic 
areas such as education and tourism.  

Cross-border and regional cooperation

This  brings  me  to  the  second  important  area: 
Cross-border and regional cooperation. This can 
play a very important role, not only in terms of 
economic integration, but above all, in the devel-

opment  of  civil  society.  This  is  true  already  for 
the  Ukraine-EU  border.  Cross-border  coopera-
tion at the lowest level of governance will also play 
a crucial role in rebuilding the eastern regions of 
Ukraine  and  in  overcoming  prejudices  on  both 
sides of these eastern regions’ borders (hopefully, 
we will still be talking about the current borders 
and not new borders caused by the annexation of 
parts of Ukraine by Russian Federation). In the 
EU, we have long standing experiences with this; 
the first euroregion was established on the Dutch-
German border already in 1958 and since then, 
these permanent cooperation structures together 
with funding from the INTERREG programmes 
became a very important tool in overcoming the 
dividing character of borders and also in the co-
operation  of  citizens.  Association  of  European 
border regions (AEBR) and DG REGIO are the 
pool of expertise that could be shared with our 
eastern partners. It is therefore crucial that coop-
eration programmes function well, are tailor-made 
to specific local needs, have decentralised manage-
ment  and  also  have  sufficient  resources.  Educa-
tion and culture are also very important areas of 
cooperation.  Therefore,  it  is  important  to  keep 
programmes such as Erasmus+ open to partners 
from Eastern Partnership countries.

I hope that the Conference of the Regional and 
Local  Authorities  for  the  Eastern  Partnership 
(CORLEAP) will work more intensively during 
the  upcoming  new  CoR  mandate  and  its  work 
will lead to many specific projects that would help 
specific municipalities, regions and above all their  
inhabitants.  

EU-Ukraine cooperation 

The principal objective of EU-Ukraine coopera-
tion is to bring Ukraine closer to the EU and foster 
political relations as well as economic integration 
through the European Neighbourhood Policy and 
the Eastern Partnership. EU assistance to Ukraine 
is delivered through bilateral and regional Annual 
Action Programmes (AAPs).

Until  2013,  the  European  Neighbourhood  and 
Partnership Instrument (ENPI) was a key finan-
cial and cooperation instrument. The new Euro-
pean Neighbourhood Instrument is the main EU 
instrument in 2014-2020.

Ukraine benefits from various regional coopera-
tion programmes (mainly in education, transport 
or  border  assistance),  cross-border  cooperation 
and other programmes focused on education (Er-
asmus+), institution building (TAIEX, SIGMA) 
and investments (Neighbourhood Investment Fa-
cility, NIF).

In  addition  to  the  ENI  instrument,  Ukraine  is 
also eligible for funding under the thematic pro-
grammes,  notably  the  European  Instrument  for 
Democracy  and  Human  Rights  (EIDHR),  In-
strument  contributing  to  Stability  and  Peace, 
Instrument  for  Nuclear  Safety  Cooperation  as 
well  as  the  Development  Cooperation  Instru-

ment.  Thematic  Instruments  provide  financial 
support to civil society and a broader set of non-
state  actors  and  local  authorities  in  Ukraine. 
Since  2011,  the  civil  society  organisations  also 
benefit  from  the  Neighbourhood  Civil  Soci-
ety Facility (CSF). The ENPI bilateral assistance 
committed to Ukraine in 2007-2013 amounts to 
1 billion EUR.

The European Parliament gave its consent to the 
EU-Ukraine  Association  agreement,  which  in-
cludes  a  Deep  and  Comprehensive  Free  Trade 
Agreement (DCFTA), on 16 September. At the 
same time, the Agreement was also ratified by the 
Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 19

CRisis in ukRaine and easteRn paRtneRship 

Supporting democratic processes  
in Ukraine by elections’ monitoring

Cllr Doreen Huddart (UK/ALDE), Member of the Newcastle City Council 

thE dEclaration of autonomous statEs in sEvEral EastErn towns by russia-backEd militia. 

protEsts by rEsidEnts facing armEd policE in maidan squarE, thE flight to moscow of formEr prEsidEnt yanukovych, and thE fact 
that kiEv had bEEn without a mayor for somE timE. anothEr factor was thE illEgal annExation of thE crimEa by russian troops and 

mEmbErs of thE ElEctoral monitoring tEam that includEd 6 cor mEmbErs will rEcall that thE crisis in ukrainE had rEsultEd in mass 
With support from the West, acting gov-

lic mood and electoral practice. It was also closely 
monitored by members of the international com-
munity, many of whom were hoping for improve-
ments on past performance. 

yellow or national dress. Turnout was up, people 
queued up to vote, brought their children along 
and many voted for the first time. 

ernment ministers were quick to bring 
in new laws and arrangements to estab-
lish processes for voting in both a president and 
local mayors. The CoR was privileged to send a 
delegation  to  Kiev  in  July  and  to  hear  from  the 
Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman at 
its April plenary session. 

The electoral monitoring team of 20, including 6 
CoR members, was set up by the Congress of Eu-
rope. Several of its members had previous experi-
ence of Ukraine. Previous electoral missions had 
strongly  criticised  administrative  arrangements, 
heavy-handedness and poor practice. On this oc-
casion, there was a clear difference in both the pub-

Unfortunately, because of the security situation, 
we were mostly assigned to non-conflict areas to 
focus on locations also holding local and mayoral 
elections. Some monitors did travel to eastern con-
flict areas and were kidnapped; in other areas, the 
polling centres were attacked and damaged. We 
managed to observe around 120 polling stations 
and  the  differences  were  palpable.  There  was  a 
mood of patriotism, with many national flags in 
evidence.  Polling  staff  had  decorated  the  build-
ings with flowers and many were wearing blue and 

The mood for change has resulted in a new presi-
dent, some new councillors and mayors, and the 
first  steps  towards  a  more  democratic  future. 
Ukraine still has many problems to address: the 
economy, agriculture, dependence on Russia for 
energy, its desire to be Europe-facing, Crimea, and 
what to do about the tented Maidan square village 
which still blocks a large section of the city centre. 
The CoR has publicly expressed its support for our 
Ukrainian neighbours and I hope that our elector-
al monitoring work has contributed towards help-
ing its democratic processes.  

ship, the policy launched by the European Union 
for its Eastern neighbours, to bring them closer, 
avoiding new dividing lines, and  to conclude far 
reaching Association Agreements, including Deep 
and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas. The Euro-
pean Parliament had called for the creation of the 
Assembly already during its 6th legislature. The 
Euronest PA is currently composed of 110 Mem-
bers: 60 Members from the European Parliament 
(this is also the number of Members of the current 
EP delegation) and 10 from each of the following 
countries (the Eastern Partners): Armenia, Azer-
baijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. For politi-
cal reasons, it was not possible, to date, to admit to 
the PA any Belarusian Delegation. The Euronest 
PA aims to be the institution for multilateral par-
liamentary dialogue and for exchange among the 
Eastern partners and between the MEPs and their 
Eastern partner countries’ homologues in several 
areas  of  common  interest:  stability,  democracy, 
legal and standards approximation, trade, energy, 
people-to-people contacts and many others. The 
new chairperson of the Euronest PA is Heidi Hau-
tala from Finland. 

Heidi Hautala, MEP, Chairperson of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly

EURONEST Parliament Assembly 

The Delegation to the EURONEST Parliamen-
tary Assembly (Euronest PA) has been created by 
decision  of  the  European  Parliament  on  6  May 

2009 and constituted in the beginning of the 7th 
legislature (end of September 2009).  The Assem-
bly, after one and a half year of difficult discus-
sions, has been established on 3 May 2011 as the 
parliamentary dimension of the Eastern Partner-

20

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

ENP requires “tailor-made” policies

Olgierd Geblewicz (PL/EPP), CoR rapporteur on “European Neighbourhood Policy Package”

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) 

and  its  instruments  remain  a  structure 
within  which  the  European  Union  coop-
erates  with  its  partners  to  establish  democracy, 
strengthen sustainable and socially inclusive eco-
nomic growth and build security. Last evolution of 
the ENP shows that the challenges facing partner 
countries are increasingly diverse. This requires 
policies  more  closely  geared  to  the  expectations 
and needs of all the partners. 

To ensure that neighbourhood policy is as effec-
tive as possible, cooperation between the EU and 
ENP  countries  should  be  “tailor-made”,  with  a 
high degree of flexibility and sensitivity to ongoing 
political, social and economic changes. In view of 
this, both development priorities and specific tasks 
should be framed not only at EU and national level 
but also at local and regional authority level, with 
the involvement of civil society in the broad sense 
of the term.

During the drafting of my opinion, special atten-
tion has been paid to:

•	

•	

•	

•	

•	

•	

strengthening	the	regional	and	local	dimen-
sions of the ENP;

emphasising	the	active	role	played	by	local	and	
regional  authorities  and  multilevel  govern-
ance in the process of working towards “deep 
democracy”;

the	need	for	decentralisation,	particularly	in	
the area of taxation;

emphasising	 Committee	 of	 the	 Regions	
(CoR) involvement in the ENP implementa-
tion process;

stressing	local	and	regional	authority	involve-
ment in the work of “thematic platforms”;

strengthening	the	active	role	of	the	CoR	in	the	
funding  allocation  process,  and  developing 
appropriate  cooperation  mechanisms  with 
the Commission in this field;

•	

•	

•	

promoting	 bottom-up	 initiatives	 and	 sup-
porting cooperation between regional and lo-
cal authorities in ENP and EU countries;

taking	steps	to	consolidate	dialogue	as	well	as	
the exchange of information and know-how;

using	 existing	 support	 instruments	 (e.g.	
TAIEX, Twinning) at sub-national level.

European Neighbourhood Policy is an interactive 
initiative, requiring the involvement of all stake-
holders, the EU and its neighbours, based on the 
jointly agreed principles of “more for more” and 
“shared  responsibility”.  Neighbouring  countries 
which are ready to carry out domestic reforms are 
given an opportunity to cooperate with the EU on 
such reforms, and are offered the prospect of EU 
political support as well as technical and financial 
assistance.  

Regions and Cities of euRope 21

raPPorTeurs have Their saY

in this rEgular column, mEmbErs to thE committEE of thE rEgion writE in thEir own words what motivatEs thEm to takE on thE rolE of 
rapportEur for thE policy arEa that thEy arE writing thEir opinion. thE following op-Eds focus on a divErsE numbEr of topics from 2030 climatE 
and EnErgy action framEwork to post-2015 hyogo framEwork.

2030 climate and energy action framework

Annabelle Jaeger (FR/PES),  Regional Councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

At  a  time  when  the  latest  IPCC  scientific 

data is warning us that global warming and 
its effects are worsening, the draft opinion 
which I am drawing up for the Committee of the 
Regions is urging the EU to adopt a winning triad 
of  climate  and  energy  objectives  to  2030,  all  of 
them binding, namely:

•	

•	

•	

a	50%	reduction	in	greenhouse	gas	emissions	
from 1990 levels; 
renewables	 to	 represent	 40%	 of	 the	 energy	
mix, based on national targets; 
a	40%	reduction	in	primary	energy	consump-
tion  compared  with  2005  achieved  through 
efficiency gains, also based on national targets.

These three goals are needed to give us a chance 
of avoiding a catastrophic temperature rise of more 
than 2°C and to achieve the EU’s long-term objec-
tive (an 80-95% reduction in greenhouse gas emis-
sions). This is the strong political signal that the 
local and regional authorities are expecting from 
Europe. On the strength of these objectives, the 
EU should be ready to negotiate a global climate 
agreement with a view to the 21st Conference of 
the Parties (COP21).

The draft opinion also stresses the key role of local 
and regional authorities in drawing up and imple-
menting climate and energy policies. The UNDP 
notes that more than 70% of climate change reduc-

tion  measures  and  up  to  90%  of  climate  change 
adaptation measures are undertaken by local au-
thorities. 

Their work cannot have an optimum impact un-
less it is acknowledged on the basis of long-term 
financial resources and a mandate for action. This 
is why the Committee of the Regions is calling on 
the EU to recognise the role of local and regional 
authorities and look to them to help meet climate 
and energy challenges. 

Green Paper on mobile Health

Martin Andreasson (SV/EPP),  Member of the Regional Assembly of Västra Götaland 

In April, the European Commission published 

its  Green  Paper  on  mobile  health  (mHealth). 
Now The Committee of the rRegions is in the 
middle  of  the  process  of  drafting  an  opinion  on 
this subject. mHealth refers to medical and health-
related services that can be accessed from mobile 
devices such as mobile phones, tablet devices com-
puters, patient monitoring devices units, and other 
wireless devices. Within mHealth there are offers a 
variety of solutions to make life easier for individu-
als by increasing their knowledge of and participa-
tion involvement in their own health. Theseis may 
includevolve, for example, services where a patients 
can easily read their heart rate, blood sugar level, 
blood pressure and body temperature or solutions 
where  the  user  receives  reminders  about  taking 
medication intake or advice on dietary and exercise 
advice. Mm-hHealth solutions can also create bet-

ter working conditions for health sector staff and it 
can promote economic growth.

The  Committee  of  the  Regions  welcomes  the 
Commission’s Green Paper on mHealth as an im-
portant documents and assumes is taking the po-
litical leadership on behalf of the European regions 
on  how  to  deliver  innovative  mHealth  solutions 
to better respond more effectively to the changing 
and diverse needs of Europe’s citizens and patients, 
depending  on  their  individual  health  and  social 
situation, capabilities, and motivation desire to be-
come actively involved in their own treatment. The 
Committee agrees with the Commission’s assess-
ment that mHealth solutions have the potential 
to improve the health and wellbeing of European 
citizens whilst creating growth and jobs. However, 
the move towards electronic and mobile health will 

not  succeed  if  the  general  public  and  the  health 
professionals do not have trust in the new tools. 
Issues asurrounding privacy, confidentiality, data 
protection and liability must be addressed and con-
tinuously monitored to protect sensitive data from 
hacking, leaksing, privacy breaches or any other 
form of misuse.

This is hHowever, these are not insurmountable 
obstacles.  If  we  look  at  the  development  within 
mobile banking, it is clear that Europeans increas-
ingly appreciate the ease of access to their finan-
ciale information details and are ready for a similar 
straightforwardness approach regarding in terms 
of access to their medical appointments and health 
data. 

22

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

Tourism is the largest maritime  
activity in Europe

Vasco Cordeiro (PT/PES),  President of the Azores Regional Government

Tourism  is  an  important  economic  activity 

throughout  Europe,  but  its  importance  is 
especially apparent in coastal and maritime 
regions: almost 40% of Europeans live in coastal 
areas, which are also the areas where 63% of Eu-
ropeans spend their holidays. Tourism is thus the 
main source of income and a leading driver of the 
economy in many of these regions.

Moreover, according to the European Commission, 
coastal and maritime tourism is the largest maritime 
activity in Europe, employing almost 3.2 million peo-
ple and generating EUR 183 billion in gross value 
added - this represents over one third of the whole EU 

maritime economy. The fact that the Commission has 
presented the first strategy for growth and employ-
ment in this sector thus demonstrates its importance 
in the current EU economic context. It also stresses 
the untapped potential it offers, if supported by more 
integrated EU policies and closer involvement of Eu-
rope’s coastal local and regional authorities.

In my report, I sought to stress the fundamental role 
which local and regional authorities play in planning 
and implementing tourism policy, and to highlight 
the need to mainstream coastal and maritime tourism 
into other relevant EU policies such as IT connectiv-
ity, transport, the environment, safety, consumer pro-

tection and labour mobility. I also drew attention to 
the necessary linkage between coastal and maritime 
tourism and environmental sustainability issues. This 
is crucial if such tourism is to continue and to be sus-
tainable in its turn.

The report also focuses on the question of seasonal-
ity - an aspect where accessibility is vitally important, 
especially in the case of island and remote regions. 
Similarly, products and skills need to be upgraded so 
that, especially when it comes to youth employment 
and entrepreneurship, tourism can help provide eco-
nomic growth on a competitive basis throughout the 
year. 

Fight against undeclared work 

Dainis Turlais (LV/ALDE),   Chairman of the Riga City Council’s committee on Security, public order and corruption prevention

In proposing the creation of a “European plat-

form to improve cooperation in order to prevent 
and deter undeclared work”, the European Par-
liament and the Council have shone a spotlight on 
a set of problems affecting the European Union 
in terms of its standing, migration, labour market 
freedom, fiscal policy and social security. In many 
cases, people who work illegally are also victims of 
human trafficking, which puts the issue of unde-
clared work on par with the fight against organised 
crime. As the rapporteur of the Committee of the 
Regions, my feeling is that the EU’s local and re-
gional authorities welcome and support this initia-
tive, which is meant to set out a clear mission and 
objectives, to divide up responsibilities and tasks 
between the EU and its Member States, between 
the  different  decision-making  authorities  at  na-
tional level and between employers and workers, 
and to disseminate resources, ideas, general infor-
mation and the latest statistical data. 

There are a number of key questions that need to 
be answered: will the European platform’s activi-

ties be centralised or decentralised? Will Member 
State  participation  be  mandatory  or  voluntary? 
Will new administrative structures need to be set 
up at national and European level, and, if so, what 
sort? Other points also need to be clarified: would 
it  make  sense  to  introduce  a  single  system  and 
methodology to measure undeclared work across 
all Member States? Is there a need to provide for 
a common legal framework and a single point of 
contact in each Member State? These are the main 
questions and areas in need of clarification – how 
they are answered will depend in large part on our 
vision of the EU’s future, including the degree of 
federalisation and the functions performed by its 
Member States on the one hand and its central in-
stitutions on the other. However, there is one con-
sideration that does not seem to have been given 
enough attention so far: what role will the EU’s 
regions and municipalities play in achieving these 
European objectives? As the elected power that is 
closest to the people, local and regional authori-
ties are an important player in achieving the spe-
cific targets set out in the Europe 2020 strategy. 

We would like to think that the recently elected 
European Parliament will cooperate pragmatically 
with the Committee of the Regions, which is the 
spokesperson for local and regional authorities.

Local and regional authorities are among the play-
ers with the greatest interest in preventing unde-
clared work, for a number of reasons. Firstly, failure 
to collect personal income tax represents a substan-
tial loss of revenue for them. They are also forced 
to allocate additional resources to paying out social 
benefits to people who lie about their employment 
activities to secure various allowances and other 
advantages. It is a well-known fact that a signifi-
cant section of the population in EU countries lives 
on these allowances, and has no interest in taking 
up paid work, or rather, in this case, declared paid 
work. A large number of people who are officially 
unemployed thus benefit, in one way or another, 
from various sources of additional income. Thirdly, 
and finally, local authorities are confronted most 
directly  with  the  challenges  posed,  within  their 
boundaries, by large groups of people who system-

Regions and Cities of euRope 23

RappoRteuRs Have tHeiR say

atically break the law, and who have effectively el-
evated this behaviour to a way of life. 

Statistics indicate that the number of undeclared 
workers  varies  from  one  EU  region  to  the  next. 
It does not just depend on the weight of the tax 
burden, enforcement and other factors within the 
power of public authorities, but also reflects other 
factors, such as the relative size of the immigrant 

population, the distribution of jobs between sec-
tors and the extent to which they are seasonal, to 
mention just a few. Consequently, the fight against 
undeclared work will have to take account of the 
circumstances specific to each local and regional 
authority individually, rather than across all the 
countries concerned. Bearing all this in mind, the 
Committee  of  the  Regions  believes  that  repre-
sentatives from among its own ranks should play 

a role in setting up the platform, as equal partners 
alongside  the  national  implementing  authorities 
designated by the Member States and the Com-
mission, to see to it that local and regional interests 
are taken into account when addressing these prob-
lems, and to ensure a balance between the points of 
view of the EU’s central institutions and those of its 
constituent countries. 

Mobility in demographically  
and geographically challenged regions

Gordon Keymer CBE (UK/ECR),   Member of Tandridge District Council 

undErlinEd thE importancE of gEographically and dEmographically challEngEd rEgions for thE balancEd and sustainablE dEvElopmEnt 
of thE Eu.

cllr gordon kEymEr cbE (uk/Ecr), as thE cor’s rapportEur on “mobility in dEmographically and gEographically challEngEd rEgions”, 
“Challenged regions are crucial for sus-

port  systems  and  improved  ICT  or  on-demand 
transport”.

On  the  subject  of  financing  Cllr  Keymer  noted 
that he “welcomes the inclusion of a specific the-
matic  objective  on  Sustainable  Transport  in  the 
European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) 
2014-20 programme. However, the pressing mo-
bility needs should be addressed by the Member 

tainable and balanced growth and jobs. 
They fulfil essential tasks for the bal-
anced development of the EU, notably through ac-
cess to raw material, agriculture, fisheries, environ-
mental protection, tourism and leisure opportuni-
ties.  Promoting  economic  growth  in  challenged 
regions would also positively impact employment 
rates and contribute to the effective functioning of 
the internal market and the territorial cohesion of 
the Union as a whole,” said Cllr Keymer. Adopted 
during the 11-12 July CoR Territorial Cohesion 
Policy Commission (COTER) meeting, the draft 
opinion  makes  4  key  proposals.  It  calls  for  the 
Commission to publish a Green Paper on mobility, 
calls for the adoption of territorial impact assess-
ments, suggests financing solutions and innovative 
tools and calls for special consideration to be given 
in the EU’s rules to ports and airports.

“It is regrettable that the 
restriction imposed by the 
European Regional Development 
Fund for the financing period 
2014-2020 in most cases prohibits, 
in practice, the financing of airport 
infrastructure.”

Also, Cllr Keymer underlined that “ports and air-
ports play an important role in the development of 
challenged  regions.  For  island  communities  and 
outermost regions, such connections are the only 
possible  means  of  transport  and  are  essential  to 
their very survival. They are also essential for ena-
bling the region to connect, both to their respective 
countries and to the rest of the EU”. On the sub-
ject of what measures could be taken, Cllr Keymer 
argued that “to assist challenged regions, special 
consideration should be given to them in the EU’s 
rules relating to ports and airports, such as public 
procurement and concessions rules and in the EU’s 
state aid rules governing ports, aviation, and Ser-
vices of General Economic Interest”.  Expressing 
concerns over the availability of funds for ports and 
airports, Cllr Keymer also added, “it is regrettable 
that the restriction imposed by the European Re-
gional Development Fund for the financing period 
2014-2020 in most cases prohibits, in practice, the 
financing of airport infrastructure”.

While welcoming the work of the European Com-
mission, Cllr Keymer underlined that “greater at-
tention needs to be paid to the role of challenged 
regions and that all challenged regions of all sizes 
should be taken into consideration when promot-
ing mobility.” The opinion is due to be at the 7-8 
October CoR Plenary session. 

“We need a Green Paper on mobility”, stated Cllr. 
Keymer. He further explained that “mobility chal-
lenges impact employment and growth. Through 
the Green Paper, mobility issues in challenged re-
gions should be better recognised and addressed in 
the full range of the EU’s policies and programmes. 
In developing the Green Paper, attention must of 
course  be  paid  to  where  non-legislative  actions 
could add value to national and sub-national ini-
tiatives”. “We also need Territorial impact assess-
ments. This would give us the opportunity to take 
account of the territorial impact of the EUs mobil-
ity policies in challenges regions and enable us to 
better address the challenges”.  

States  and  ESIF  management  authorities.  It  is 
necessary to factor these in when defining partner-
ship agreements and operational programmes for 
implementing  ESIF”.  Cllr  Keymer  emphasized 
that “other EU funds, European Investment Bank 
funding,  and  private  sector  financing  could  also 
play a stronger supporting role”. “Local and region-
al authorities will be the key driving force behind 
many innovations necessary to secure sustainable 
mobility as a pre-requisite to regional growth and 
jobs” stated Cllr Keymer. Cllr Keymer further ex-
plained that to overcome regional challenges, “new 
approaches  to  funding  transport  in  challenged 
regions are needed. These approaches need to be 
supported by new tools such as intelligent trans-

24

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

We must do away with damning 
stereotypes of immigrants 

António Costa (PT/PES),   Chair of the CIVEX commission, CoR rapporteur for the management of migration in the Mediterranean (ARLEM) 

The European project makes sense, and Eu-

rope must be able to continue to be a global 
player. To this end, it needs to be competitive 
and able to attract skilled people from the differ-
ent continents. No-one can deny that we are faced 
with a problem of population ageing, and that if 
communities are not able to replenish their popu-
lations we will soon be encountering difficulties at 
every level right from the outset. We cannot expect 
miracles when it comes to the active involvement of 
all members of the public in the European project. 
Specific policies, including the migration policy, 
can and must be discussed. One thing is certain: 
Europe  cannot  remain  inward-looking.  It  must 
work  together  with  other  people,  other  cultures 
and other communities. 

Europe is now becoming more diverse and embrac-
ing diversity, it is therefore a good thing that we 

are rubbing shoulders in our cities, municipalities 
and regions with fellow citizens who were once mi-
grants or whose parents or grandparents were born 
on other continents or in other places. We must 
find ways of involving immigrants and integrating 
them into our societies properly, fostering a culture 
of solidarity and responsibility. We must not for-
get that other new continents also came into being 
thanks to the sweat and toil of people from Europe 
who decided to put down roots, start families and 
find work outside the Old World. Together with 
members  of  the  public,  we  must  reflect  on  and 
share  our  concept  of  immigration,  and  establish 
bridges,  synergies,  reciprocity  and  dialogue.  We 
must do away with damning stereotypes of immi-
grants and enable them to play a full role as citizens 
in their host societies. Lisbon is one example, but 
there are many others across Europe. 

We must demonstrate more and to greater effect 
the added value that immigrants bring to our soci-
eties. The Mediterranean is a place where civilisa-
tions and cultures meet and is a forum for exchange. 
We must be able to exploit all the potential that 
contact between people can bring. The Committee 
of the Regions’ Euro-Mediterranean Regional and 
Local Assembly (ARLEM) is a valuable forum for 
promoting this dialogue and exchange of culture, 
which we all want to see. Like other Mediterranean 
countries and cities, Italy has always been a place 
where communities and cultures meet. I hope that 
the Italian Presidency of the Council of the Euro-
pean Union will give substance to a more cohesive 
Europe that is more aware of the importance of 
immigrants for all of us, both Europeans and non-
Europeans. 

Witold Krochmal (PL/EA),   Member of the City and Municipal Council of Wołów

Long-term financing  
of the European economy

municipal council of wołów, on long-tErm financing of thE EuropEan Economy. 

during thE octobEr plEnary sEssion thE cor will adopt thE opinion drawn up by witold krochmal (pl/Ea), mEmbEr of thE city and 
The  European  Union  is  currently  going 

through  a  period  of  profound  economic 
change. What in the 1980s turned out to be 
a temporary crisis involving the adjustment of Eu-
ropean economies is now happening on a perma-
nent basis; it is a recurrent theme of economic and 
social life. The public sector is a key contributor to 
gross capital formation in the form of tangible and 
intangible investment. 

ment.  As  part  of  efforts  to  diversify  financing 
sources for the European economy, the best possi-
ble conditions must be put in place for the develop-
ment of European capital markets, with financial 
instruments structured so as to enable investment 
in listed SMEs. Heavy dependence on bank inter-
mediation, combined with bank deleveraging and 
reduced investor confidence, has reduced funding 
for all sectors of the economy.  

targeted  at  economic  projects,  at  the  same  time 
as reflecting the climate and energy package for 
2030,” said Mr Krochmal. “In this opinion I advo-
cate for conditions to enable long-term financing of 
the economy by insurance companies. This could 
involve investments in infrastructure, SMEs and 
social enterprises.”

Efforts  are  needed  to  ensure  more  transparent 
and efficient use of public funds, to maximise the 
return  on  public  investment,  its  contribution  to 
growth  and  its  ability  to  leverage  private  invest-

“I am confident that suitable legal regulation of the 
European economy’s long-term economic financing 
system will overcome risk aversion among potential 
investors. Long-term financing sources should be 

The European Union has acted with determina-
tion to reverse these trends and restore the condi-
tions for sustainable growth and investment. The 
ability of the financial system to channel funds into 
long-term investments will be essential in securing 
Europe’s position on a sustainable growth path. 

Regions and Cities of euRope 25

RappoRteuRs Have tHeiR say

National allocations of the school  
milk and fruit scheme

Povilas Žagunis (LT/EA),   Member of Panevėžys District Municipal Council and Mayor

On 7-8 October 2014, the opinion of Povilas 

Žagunis (LT/EA), Member of Panevėžys 
District  Municipal  Council  and  Mayor 

will be discussed during the plenary session.

The European Alliance rapporteur’s opinion con-
siders the topic of aid schemes for the supply of fruit 
and vegetables, bananas and milk in educational es-
tablishments. The schemes, established to promote 
the consumption of fruit and vegetable and milk 
products are highly important for the economy and 
public health. During last years, a lot was done to 
promote the schemes, but unfortunately, declining 
trends continue to proceed. 

Mr Žagunis is critical of the European Commis-
sion’s proposal under the new scheme to limit milk 
distribution, considers that minimally-processed 
milk products without harmful additives (natural 
unsweetened  milk  products)  such  as  yoghurt  or 
fresh cheeses should be also eligible for aid. “With 
no doubt Europe is diversified, and thank to this 
fact, we should consider the introduction of ad-
ditional criteria on which we could base national 
allocations for the school milk and fruit scheme”, 
suggests Žagunis. 

on the quality, puts impact on the quality of goods 
delivered to schools and calls on all interested par-
ties to take measures to guarantee and check if the 
agricultural  products  delivered  to  schools  are  of 
sufficiently high quality. The rapporteur also calls 
on  the  Commission  and  the  Member  States  to 
launch more comprehensive debate among experts 
and policy-makers on legal options for favouring 
fruit, vegetables and milk products sourced region-
ally including possible exemptions from public pro-
curement laws and any amendments to them. 

Mr Žagunis, aware of the risk of fixing amount of 
EU aid per portion that could lead to compromises 

Managing risks to achieve resilience 

Harvey Siggs (UK/ECR),   Member of Somerset County Council 

Cllr Harvey Siggs (UK/ECR), the CoR rap-

porteur  on  “Post-2015  Hyogo  Framework 
for Action: managing risks to achieve resil-
ience”, welcomed the results of the first Preparatory 
Committee  meeting  where  the  new  Framework 
was discussed and encouraged a greater local ap-
proach. 

“Building resilience to disasters is a fundamental 
necessity for sustainable growth and jobs. We risk 
losing  everything  if  our  communities  and  infra-
structures cannot withstand disasters. Disasters 
also know no borders. We must think local and 
act  global”,  said  Cllr  Siggs.”  The  Hyogo  Frame-
work is a 10 year international disaster risk reduc-
tion plan. The current framework runs till 2015 
and a new Framework is due to be adopted at the 
United Nations-led negotiations at the 3rd World 
Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai 
(Japan)  on  14-18  March,  2015.  Preparatory  and 
consultative meetings are taking place in the run up 
to March 2015. Following the first meeting of the 
Preparatory Committee on 24-25 July, a pre-zero 
draft Framework has been produced. The pre-zero 
draft is being used as a basis for open-ended infor-

mal consultative meetings and to prepare the zero-
draft in time for the second Preparatory meeting 
due to take place in Geneva, Switzerland on 17-18 
November, 2014.

“While the pre-zero-draft provides a strong basis 
for discussions, it needs to have a stronger local and 
bottom-up approach” said Cllr Siggs. “It needs to 
look more at the risk caused by poor communica-
tion and management, the risk created by trends 
such as urban sprawl and urbanisation and the risk 
of insurances potentially becoming unavailable or 
unaffordable in certain areas as a result of increas-
ing  risks.  The  pre-zero-draft  also  needs  to  look 
more closely at the greater risk faced by geographi-
cally and demographically challenged regions, by 
coastal and maritime regions and areas of special 
environmental value.”

Cllr Siggs also expressed his disappointment that 
the  pre-zero  draft  asks  for  risk-informed  invest-
ment  and  strengthened  financial  instruments  at 
the national and international level but does not 
ask for this at the local and regional level. “The 
responsibility for civil protection is often devolved 

to the local and regional level without sufficient 
funds to meet the needs. This needs to change.”In 
its opinion adopted during the June 2014 plenary 
session, the CoR underlines the need for a focus on 
prevention, preparedness and resilience and under-
lines the key role of local and regional authorities. 
“Local and regional authorities are the frontline of 
disaster management, responsible for prevention 
and  immediate  response  and  rescue  operations”, 
explained Cllr Siggs. 

Among the key recommendations of the CoR was 
the call for an open data policy, further collabora-
tion and investment in information systems and 
investment in training and practicing for disasters. 
The CoR also underlined the important role that 
the private sector can play in disaster data collec-
tion,  insurance  schemes  and  building  resilience. 
Another key recommendation was that protocols 
are put in place to ensure better coordination be-
tween regional and national disaster risk policies 
and  plans,  improved  integration  of  local  policy-
makers  and  planners  and  agreed  escalation  pro-
cedures for disasters that impact more than one 
regional area. 

26

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

Nº 88 –  September-OctOber 2014

brief news and evenTs

Jiří Buriánek takes over 
as Secretary-General

The 6th Cohesion Forum 
in Brussels 

Michel Lebrun meets 
President Barroso 

Jiří Buriánek 

Michel Lebrun and Jyrki Katainen

President Barroso and Michel Lebrun 

On 1 September, Jiří Buriánek succeeded Daniel 
Janssens and Gerhard Stahl as the head of the ad-
ministration of the Committee of the Regions.

On taking office he said: “Following the recent Eu-
ropean Parliament elections it is obvious to all of 
us working for the EU that we are restarting our 
work within a new political setting. The citizens 
of Europe are calling for a shift in respect to their 
involvement  in  areas  that  matter  most  to  them. 
This is a clear mandate to all European institu-
tions and bodies, and notably the Committee of 
the Regions”. 

Jiří Buriánek, who holds Czech and German citi-
zenships, was formally appointed by the Commit-
tee’s Bureau members on 24 June 2014. He leaves 
his post as Director at the Secretariat-General of 
the Council of the European Union where he was 
responsible for research, industry and innovation, 
as well as for network industries (energy, trans-
port, telecommunications & information society) 
and  European  infrastructures  (Connecting  Eu-
rope Facility and Trans-European Networks). 

Prior to this, he served as Enlargement Manager at 
the European Commission’s Directorate General 
Joint Research Centre and was Secretary-General 
of PostEurop - the European branch of the United 
Nation’s Special Agency, Universal Postal Union 
representing, at that time, 42 European Universal 
Services Providers from across the EU. During his 
illustrious career Dr. Buriánek also held numerous 
management positions in large scale public sector 
entities in Germany. His education includes a law 
degree, a PhD in European Law and a Master of 
Business Administration with a focus on Informa-
tion Technology and Telecommunication Policy. 
The Committee of the Regions’ Secretary-Gener-
al is appointed by the assembly’s Bureau members 
for a mandate of five years. 

“Cohesion policy succeeded in reducing the impact 
of the crisis but development gaps are on the rise 
again and the unemployment tragedy has not yet 
been addressed. We must all shape and implement 
the 2014-2020 policy framework with due regard 
for this challenge and with the involvement of all 
partners at national, regional and local level.” This 
was the key message delivered by the President of 
the Committee of the Regions, Michel Lebrun, at 
the 6th Cohesion Forum in Brussels on 8 and 9 
September. 

During a lively discussion with EU policy-makers 
and stakeholders, the CoR president stressed the 
key role played by the EU budget, which covered 
60%-80% of investment by regions and cities in the 
last three years. The impact of Growth and Sta-
bility  Pact  expenditure  ceilings  on  re-launching 
investment and, in particular, on the implementa-
tion of cohesion policy programmes was one of the 
most debated topics of the forum. The discussion 
also involved the CoR rapporteur for the 6th Co-
hesion Report, Nicola Zingaretti (IT/PES) and 
Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President of the European 
Commission for Economic and Monetary Affairs 
and the Euro, who opposed the proposed soften-
ing  in  the  current  EU  provisions  on  budgetary 
discipline. 

The CoR president highlighted the role of regional 
and local authorities in shaping and implement-
ing the investment plans funded by EU cohesion 
policy, as well as the need to improve the participa-
tion of regions and cities in EU macro-economic 
policy coordination and the European Semester. 
The national reform programmes cannot be de-
veloped and implemented successfully without the 
full  contribution  of  regions  and  cities.  Without 
this  new  approach  and  genuine  multilevel  gov-
ernance, most of the EU growth targets will not 
be reached. 

Michel Lebrun held talks on 18 September with 
the European Commission President, José Manuel 
Barroso, to discuss how best to exploit regional and 
cohesion policy to boost public investment and de-
liver jobs and growth. He stressed that investment 
made by regions and cities to match EU cohesion 
policy funds should be safeguarded and excluded 
from the EU’s Growth and Stability Pact ceilings.

With economic growth topping the political agen-
da, the talks focused on the pivotal role of EU re-
gional funding. Referring to the recent European 
Commission 6th Cohesion Report President Leb-
run said, “EU Cohesion Policy is one of the main 
instruments for many local and regional authori-
ties in Europe to help get smart investment back on 
track. The recent Cohesion Report demonstrated 
the critical role it plays in the process of conver-
gence between the EU’s regions. The report also 
proved the value EU regional funds have played in 
fighting the crisis. Nevertheless, regional dispari-
ties across Europe have grown”. 

President  Lebrun  noted  that  slow  growth  was 
proving a barrier for local and regional authorities 
to free up resources for investment and reiterated 
the CoRs’ call made in its Turin Declaration to ex-
clude all national and regional co-funding of EU-
supported investments (including projects under 
European Commission President-elect Juncker’s 
investment plan) from the deficit indicators used 
under the stability and growth pact. 

Following  their  meeting,  Barroso  and  Lebrun 
joined representatives from seven major EU local 
and regional associations for a working lunch. The 
meeting took place in the framework of the annual 
“Structured Dialogue” which brings together the 
European Commission, the CoR and Local and 
Regional Authority Associations as part of efforts 
to strengthen relations between the EU and repre-
sentatives of local and regional authorities.  

Regions and Cities of euRope 27

BRief News aNd eveNts

Local and regional 
authorities are in an 
extremely delicate phase 

Martin Schulz and Nicola Zingaretti 

In its 6th Cohesion Report published in July, the 
European Commission paints a stark picture of a 
Union where one in four Europeans live in a region 
that is lagging behind and where development gaps 
have started to widen again after a decade of con-
vergence. Within this context the EU’s Structural 
Funds are often the only safeguard against plum-
meting public investment which fell by an average 
of 20% between 2008 and 2013 and by as much as 
60% in Greece, Ireland and Spain. 

Nicola  Zingaretti  (IT/PES),  President  of  the 
Lazio Region and Committee of the Regions’ rap-
porteur  on  the  Sixth  Cohesion  Report,  recalled 
that the report clearly illustrates the key role played 
by European regional policy in dealing with the 
crisis and shows how this policy is increasingly use-
ful in shaping and implementing an EU’s growth 
strategy, strengthening a cultural trend which now 
needs to be made concrete through the actions and 
choices of governments. The priorities identified 
over the next few years (from energy efficiency to 
SMEs, from employment to social inclusion) form 
a strategic framework which seeks to exit the cri-
sis with more modern and efficient human, infra-
structure and business capital. This is why we are 
now at a crossroads.

“The  most  serious  development  to  emerge  dur-
ing  the  2007-2013  period  concerns  the  employ-
ment rate, workers’ skills and the average level of 
education”, said the rapporteur. “With regard to 
the efficient use of the funds, local and regional 
authorities are in an extremely delicate phase dur-
ing which the 2007-2013 investment plans must be 
completed, following a review made necessary by 
the crisis. At the same time, the 2014-2020 invest-
ment programmes will have to be launched. These 
are a significant opportunities to promote innova-
tive and inclusive growth. However, they will have 
to contend with more stringent rules which have 
been exacerbated by the recession”.

There is not just a Europe of States; there is also, 
and to an increasing extent, a Europe of Regions. 

28

News  from the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives

ALDE group visited  
the Northern Netherlands 

The handover of the Switch document to the Dutch  
national Minister Henk Kamp 

The transition to a sustainable energy system is 
one of the most important challenges of the com-
ing decades. An energy system based on fossil fuel 
damages  the  environment  and  the  climate  and 
makes us dependant on other countries. The tran-
sition offers great economic possibilities. A delega-
tion from the ALDE group visited the Northern 
Netherlands in September, when Mr Henk Brink 
(province  of  Drenthe)  and  Mr  Bote  Wilpstra 
(province of Groningen) showed them how their 
regions create economic benefits from renewable 
energy. 

The Energy Valley region in the Northern Neth-
erlands is one of the European frontrunners when 
it comes to energy. Companies, governments and 
knowledge institutions work closely together here 
in order to realise the sustainable energy system of 
the future. The region is an excellent example of 
successful triple helix cooperation. One incidence 
of this is the release of Switch – the first regional 
energy plan jointly developed by regional and local 
governments, research and industry.

Energy system 2.0 

As one of the first regions in Europe, the Northern 
Netherlands realised that achieving a sustainable 
energy system is not just a matter of replacing fos-
sil sources with renewable sources of energy. The 
integration of the different energy sources - whose 
output often fluctuates - is the biggest challenge. 
It is therefore necessary to focus on the energy sys-
tem as a whole: Energy system 2.0. What makes 
the Energy Valley region stand out is the fact that 
the triple helix partners in the region go beyond set 
agendas and research, converting them into tangi-
ble regional pilots. Energy system 2.0 can only be 
realised in close cooperation with all the regional 
parties as well as the central government and the 
European Commission.  

Because of its financial dimension, its aspirations 
in terms of competitiveness and the fight against 
exclusion, and its multilevel structure, the Europe 
of Regions is at the centre of the European social 
model.  “Working  towards  an  effective  cohesion 
policy  therefore  means  working  to  secure  more 
competitive,  fairer  regions  while  also  building  a 
more definite and influential European identity”, 
concluded Zingaretti. 

Innovative solutions 
for the European industrial 
Renaissance 

Monago Terraza 

The drive for industrialisation has become a neces-
sity for the European Union, especially in those 
regions  that  are  still  classified  as  less  developed 
or those that are still looking to recover from the 
economic and financial crisis. The EPP Group in 
the Committee of the Regions will therefore hold 
an external seminar dedicated to “Innovative solu-
tions for the European industrial Renaissance” in 
Badajoz on 24 October, on the invitation of José 
Antonio Monago Terraza (ES/EPP), President of 
the Junta of Extremadura. 

In its communication at the start of the year, the 
European Commission urged Member States to 
recognise the central importance of industry for 
creating jobs and growth and to mainstream in-
dustry-related competitiveness concerns across all 
policy areas. Taking this into account, President 
of  the  EPP  Group,  Michael  Schneider,  has  un-
derlined that industry needs to find new ways to 
ensure that job creation is at the forefront of EU 
local and regional economies, be that in the field of 
energy, transport, space and/or digital communi-
cations networks.

Furthermore  industrial  modernisation  must  be 
pursued  by  investing  in  innovation,  resource  ef-
ficiency,  new  technologies,  skills  and  access  to 
finance,  accelerated  by  the  use  of  dedicated  EU 
funds. This seminar aims to provide an opportu-
nity to identify local and regional opportunities to 
re-launch growth and jobs in their regions and cit-
ies with the view to reaching from the 20% target 
of industry’s share in Europe’s GDP by 2020. 

ARLEM meeting in Marseille 

At  the  invitation  of  Michel  Vauzelle,  SUDEV 
co-chair  and  President  of  Provence-Alpes-Côte-
d’Azur  Regional  Council  (France),  members  of 
the  Commission  for  Sustainable  Development 
(SUDEV)  of  the  Euro-Mediterranean  Regional 
and Local Assembly (ARLEM) met in Marseille 
on 19 September 2014 to debate the recent devel-
opments linked to the Euro-Mediterranean strat-
egy on environment and climate change as well as 
sustainable  waste  management  at  the  local  and 
regional level. In the meeting Michel Lebrun and 
the  Secretariat  of  the  Union  for  the  Mediterra-
nean (UfM) reflected on the follow-up of the UfM 
Ministerial meeting on environment and climate 
change from a local and regional perspective. The 
debates  were  complemented  by  presentations  of 
projects for more sustainable Mediterranean cities. 

An ARLEM report on waste management at the 
local and regional level in the Mediterranean was 
presented by Mohamed Boudra, president of the 
region of Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate (Morocco), 
outlining economic, social and environmental is-
sues and challenges associated with this topic. It 
included objectives and measures to be taken to 
improve  the  capacity  and  resources  of  local  and 
regional  authorities  to  collect,  dispose  and  uti-
lise waste. Examples of successful practices were 
presented by local and regional authorities. Fur-
thermore,  Mariana  Gâju,  member  of  the  CoR 
and mayor of the Cumpăna commune (Romania) 
outlined key elements of the Committee of the Re-
gion’s draft report on “Towards a circular economy: 
a zero waste programme for Europe”. 

EuroPCom 2014

The  fifth  edition  of  EuroPCom,  the  European 
Conference on Public Communication, will take 
place on 15 and 16 October 2014 in Brussels. Over 
700 communication professionals will discuss the 
ideas and share their views on the future informa-
tion and communication strategy of the EU.  In the 
aftermath of the last European elections and at the 
start of a new EU legislature, the Committee of the 
Regions is preparing an own-initiative opinion on 
the  future  communication  approach  for  the  EU 

and  its  institutions.  The  opinion  “Reconnecting 
Europe with its citizens: more and better commu-
nication at local level” was drafted by Christophe 
Rouillon (FR/PES) and discussed at the CIVEX 
Commission  meeting  on  22-23  September  in 
Brindisi.  The  draft  opinion  underlines  the  need 
to rethink the EU communication approach: more 
interaction with and among the citizens, a higher 
involvement of local and regional politicians and 
public communicators, a greater decentralisation 
of the EU communication budget and actions, and 
a better coordination among the communication 
services of the different EU institutions. 

and government strategy experts from all levels of 
government can register for the event until 6 Octo-
ber 2014. Conference programme, practical infor-
mation and online registration: www.cor.europa.
eu/europcom 

EA group’s secondary schools’ 
competition  

Students with Valcárcel Siso and Uno Silberg

On the 25th and 26th of June 2014, the European 
Alliance group welcomed 40 students and teachers 
to Brussels. The two-day event took place on the 
occasion of the annual secondary schools compe-
tition organised by the European Alliance group. 
The competition was both an essay writing com-
petition and also a multiple-choice quiz on the Eu-
ropean Union. The winning students were from 
countries across the Europe Union including Po-
land, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Ireland, Lithu-
ania and Scotland.

They absorbed the atmosphere of the European 
institutions, learned about the functioning of the 
EU and acquainted themselves with the European 
Alliance members representing their regions, cit-
ies and local authorities. In addition, the students 
were special guests at the 107th edition of the CoR 
Plenary Session, which was this year specifically 
dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Commit-
tee of the Regions. Not only did the students have 
the opportunity to follow the Session live at the 
Hemicycle in the European Parliament, they were 
also invited to this photo session with the outgoing 
CoR President Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso.  

European  Alliance  group  President  Dr  Uno 
Silberg said that the EA/CoR group Secondary 
Schools competition is one of the best initiatives 
to engage young people in discussing the European 
Union not only in the classroom while undertaking 
the  competition  but  also  amongst  each  other  in 
Brussels.  We should always remember that the 
youth  today  are  our  leaders  tomorrow  and  we 
should continue this open dialogue with our young 
students. 

The future EU communication strategy will be one 
of the main topics of the 5th edition of EuroPCom, 
the major annual event on EU public communica-
tion, which will take place on 15 and 16 October 
in Brussels. More than 60 politicians and expert 
speakers have confirmed their participation at the 
conference,  among  them  Herman  Van  Rompuy 
(President of the European Council), Sandro Gozi 
(Italian State Secretary for Europe), Michel Leb-
run (President of the Committee of the Regions), 
Jacques Séguéla (founding father of the French ad-
vertising industry), Dietmar Dahmen (advertising 
expert)  and  Joakim  Jardenberg  (internet  adviser 
and business angel). The EuroPCom conference 
is an initiative of the Committee of the Regions, 
in partnership with the European Parliament, the 
Italian  EU  Presidency  2014,  the  Council  of  the 
EU, the European Commission and the European 
Economic and Social Committee. Communication 

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