Homepage
Sitemap
Larger
Smaller
Login
Registration
Help
Terms of use
CoR President Van den Brande celebrates Europe Day in Gdansk the birthplace of a new European democracy
07.05.2008, 16:22
Luc VAN DEN BRANDE, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), will fulfil an election pledge by visiting Gdansk, symbol of Europe's divided 20th century past and of a new solid European Democracy, on Europe Day (9 May).
The CoR President will hold talks with former Polish President Lech WA£ŹSA, Pawel ADAMOWICZ, Mayor of Gdansk and Brunon SYNAK, Chairman of the Voivodeship Sejmik, during an official two day visit to the Polish city, capital of the Pomorskie region, to celebrate the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the proposal presented by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in 1950, which led to the creation of what is now the European Union.
The Polish seaport of Gdansk is now known as one of the major centres of economic and administrative life in Poland and through the help of EU funding is undergoing a transformation from a decaying shipyard into a modern post-industrial city. Upon his election as President of the CoR in February, Mr Van den Brande stated his desire to give symbolic expression to European integration. As part of this objective, the CoR President promised to take the Committee to the places where Europe was made, wounded, transformed, is being called into question and is in demand.
The CoR President has subsequently encouraged local and regional councils to organise special sessions dedicated to highlighting the achievements of European integration to commemorate Europe Day and leads by example through his visit to Gdansk, the largest city in the Kashubian region.
Mr Van den Brande, Member of the Flemish Parliament, will arrive in Poland on the morning of 8 May and attend a lunch at the invitation of Mayor Adamowicz. In the afternoon, the CoR President, together with representatives of local authority and from NGOS, will take part in a meeting at the Kaschubian Folk University.
On 9 May, Mr Van den Brande will meet with secondary school and university students from the Faculty of Economics in the University of Gdansk in Sopot. In the afternoon, journalists are invited to join Mr Van den Brande and Mr Wa³esa, who will meet at the former Polish President's office in Gdansk.
Lech Wa³esa, leader of the Solidarity trade union movement and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was guest of honour at a conference on regional competitiveness held at the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels last November.
Background
Between 2007 and 2013 Poland is set to receive 67.3 billion euros (19.4%) of the total 347.4 billion allocated for regional policy. From this money, 22 billion will go to Cohesion Funds, 9.7 billion to European Social Funds and 34 billion to European Regional Development Funds. Poland will receive another 13.2 billion euros under rural development policy and 734 million EUR under the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).
Source: www.cor.eu