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Luc Van den Brande: Cities and regions do not feel adequately supported
27.02.2008, 10:47
Speaking at a conference in Brussels entitled: "Regions for Economic Change - Sharing excellence" on 25 February, Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) affirmed that "regions and cities see the Lisbon goals as their top priorities, but they still do not feel adequately supported by the Growth and Jobs strategy". He termed this as the "Lisbon paradox", brought to light by the Committee of the Regions.
This conference, held by DG REGIO and other Commission services in cooperation with the CoR, set out to facilitate good practice sharing in implementing the Lisbon Strategy at regional level. On behalf of the European Commission, Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, welcomed over five hundred participants from numerous European regions, stating that she was glad that the event had attracted so many of them and that "we must work together, share our experiences - both good and bad - and learn from them".
In the eyes of the president of the CoR, this two-day conference held in Brussels to give regional stakeholders the opportunity to share their ideas on sustainable development and competitiveness was particularly relevant because, in his words, "there is no such thing as a universal recipe for innovation policy, but successful actions show common features". Luc Van den Brande went on to welcome this Commission initiative as "a good example of what the European institutions can do", but warned that "this kind of support is necessary, but not sufficient".
The conference included nine workshops on issues as wide-ranging as enabling traditional industries and their human resources to adapt to the challenges of globalisation and sustainable transport.
Highlights of the second day of the conference were statements by Ivan Žagar, Minister for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy of Slovenia and Žiga Turk, Minister for Development and Growth, representing the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, and Andris Piebalgs, Commissioner for Energy.
Source: www.cor.eu