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Launch of EGTC expert group
16.01.2008, 12:43
The Slovenian Presidency of the EU and the Committee of the Regions will host the first conference of experts on the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) at Brdo Congress Centre (Slovenia) on 17 January.
Organised at the invitation of Slovenia's Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy, the meeting aims to build political support for, and raise awareness of the EGTC, a new EU instrument created to facilitate the management of cross-border, transnational and regional projects such as economic development, environmental protection, mobility and healthcare services. The EGTC will also assist Member States and regions in delivering EU and national funding schemes.
The meeting will be opened by Marko Starman, State Secretary of the Slovenian Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy, and pay particular attention to cooperation in the Alpine region, the Mediterranean area, the Pannonian Plain and with the Western Balkans.
The Committee of the Regions, the consultative body which acts as the voice of local government in European decision-making, will be represented by its First Vice-President Luc Van den Brande and eight members of its Slovenian delegation, led by Irena Majcen, Mayor of Slovenska Bistrica. The European Commission's Directorate General for Regional Policy will also take part in the meeting.
The regulation establishing the EGTC, set up by the EU Council and European Parliament, came into force in July 2006. One of the objectives of the Brdo meeting is to encourage Member States to speed-up the approval of national provisions to enable stakeholders to use the instrument. So far, only five countries (UK, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal) have completed this process.
"This is an essential step for Europe. We live in a time of challenges: economic globalisation, demographic change, migration flows, climate change, energy. These challenges are taking shape more and more on a borderless basis. Instruments like the EGTC are invaluable and the EGTC expert group will provide guidance on the process," said Mr Van den Brande, a member of Belgium's Flanders Parliament.
On 18 January, the participants will visit Technology Park Ljubljana and GEOSS, Slovenia's national geometric centre, located in Spodnja Slivna pri Vačah, in Litija municipality, where they will receive a presentation on EU-funded regional development projects.
The meeting of the expert group in Brdo will lay the foundations for a major interinstitutional conference on the EGTC, organised by the CoR, Slovenian Presidency and the European Commission, to be held in Brussels on 19 June. The CoR will present its forthcoming own-initiative report entitled "The EGTC: new impetus to territorial cooperation in Europe", at this conference. The report's author is Mercedes Bresso, President of Regione Piemonte in Italy.