12/10/2011

Opening the doors to regions and cities
Open Days promotes role of regions and cities in delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

By Francois Gabriel and Madalina Stoian, Regional Development Committee

The crucial role of regions and cities in ensuring our growth and prosperity

Cohesion policy represents the main instrument for promoting a balanced harmonious development across the Union, while also strengthening competitiveness, encouraging innovation, enhancing productivity growth in all its regions and implicitly increasing the competitiveness of the EU as a whole on a global scale. The main objective of cohesion policy is to diminish the gap between different regions, more precisely between less-favoured regions and affluent ones. It is a financial instrument and a powerful force for economic integration.

The European Parliament has always stressed that regions and cities are the motors of development, as well as the importance of increasing their role in the decision-making process and the implementation of cohesion policy, through a sound and effective multi-governance system and on the basis of subsidiarity and partnership principles.

Open Days

The European week of regions and cities Open Days is a yearly event organised by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The European Parliament and its Committee on Regional Development (REGI) have contributed to this event since 2005. Traditionally, REGI involvement has two angles: hosting and co-organising the formal Opening Session of the Open Days at the Parliament's Hemicycle and the celebration of a joint meeting between REGI and the Commission for Territorial Cohesion (COTER) of the Committee of the Regions.

This year's Open Days event takes place from 10 - 13 October and focuses on 'Investing in Europe’s future: regions and cities delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'.

What are the challenges facing us today?

According to Danuta Hübner, Chairwoman of the REGI Committee, "For years we have talked about the need to unlock, to mobilize the development potential of all European regions and cities. Experience and logic clearly shows that this mobilization turns out to be most effective and efficient when pursued through the direct engagement of local and regional levels of European governance. European regional policy has already passed the subsidiarity test. Subsidiarity works for Europe! Now, Europe needs new energy to take care of its future, to renew itself in an assertive way. A legitimate question is where this energy could and should come from. For me the answer is clear. Today, this energy should come from below. Today, this energy can be released through direct engagement of local and regional levels of governance in the pursuit of common European objectives".

The EU adopted its Europe 2020 Strategy for growth in June 2010. The EPP Group in the European Parliament (EP) and in the Committee of the Regions (CoR) understood the imperative need for voluntary political commitments, agreements or contracts between the different tiers of a country's government, to ensure the delivery of the Strategy's objectives. We therefore launched and promoted the idea of Territorial Pacts on the Europe 2020 Strategy, an initiative which was officially endorsed by the two institutions (EP and CoR) and received political support from the European Commission, the European Council, and the Belgian, Hungarian and Polish Presidencies of the EU.

What next?

According to Mrs Hübner, "The ownership of the Strategy should go beyond the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. Regional and local levels of European governance are important co-managers, capable of harnessing the policy tools they have at their disposal as well as the enthusiasm of all partners in business, academia and civil society, so we can translate general goals into territorial-specific ones."

A new legislative package governing regional policy will be adopted for the next programming period (2014-2020). The European Parliament, in its capacity as co-legislator, will watch carefully to ensure there is a clear definition of and regulation for an increased role of regional and local authorities in the preparation and negotiation process for Partnership Contacts between the Commission and Member States, in line with the objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy, as well as in the effective implementation of programmes.