Homepage
Sitemap
Larger
Smaller
Login
Registration
Help
Terms of use
Van den Brande about Union for Mediterranean
12.09.2008, 17:51
Addressing the bi-annual Conference on "Entrepreneurship with a Human Face" organised by Dimitris Dimitriadis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Greek Ministry of Development in Athens, the President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) underlined the importance of decentralisation as a key success factor for economic growth in Europe.
"In those EU Member States where decentralisation is far advanced and where local authorities are financially relatively independent from the national level, you will find the most efficient public promotion of entrepreneurship. If you want to know Europe's best success stories on clusters' policies you will find them in the regions with the strongest financial, fiscal and legislative decentralised powers," Van den Brande said.
"It is only by securing active inclusion and high levels of employment in our society, that decision-makers and business leaders can give entrepreneurship a human face that will appeal to all citizens," Van den Brande stated. The President of the CoR, who called for direct access to the European Social Fund for regional and local authorities in order to make active inclusion a concrete tool also at the regional and local level, was invited by the French presidency - represented in Athens by the High Commissioner for active solidarity against poverty Martin Hirsch - to attend the informal council meeting on active inclusion on 16 October in Marseille.
The involvement of local regional and national levels in EU politics was also the main subject of a meeting Van den Brande held with Dimitrios Sioufas, President of the Hellenic Parliament. Van den Brande welcomed the Hellenic Parliament as one of the newest partners in the CoR's Subsidiarity Monitoring Network which brings together nearly 100 regional and local authorities as well as regional and national parliaments. The network aims to monitor EU legislation regarding its compliance with subsidiarity and to involve local, regional and national political assemblies in the EU decision making process.
Van den Brande called upon all the 27 national parliaments of the European Union to join forces with the CoR when developing and stepping up their activities on subsidiarity monitoring in the framework of the so-called "early warning system" foreseen in the new subsidiarity protocol of the Lisbon Treaty. In particular, he invited national legislators to take account of the Committee of the Regions' point of view on European draft legislation before taking a formal decision on its compatibility with subsidiarity.
Van den Brande invited President Sioufas to participate in the 3rd Conference on Subsidiarity in Paris on 24 October which will take place in the framework of the French EU Presidency and will look into ways how to implement the new Subsidiarity Protocol. The event is jointly organised by the CoR and the French Senate, a longstanding partner of the CoR's Subsidiarity Monitoring Network.
Van den Brande also held talks with Dora Bakoyannis, the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, to seek her support for the CoR's plan to set up a "Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly" launched by Van den Brande at the European Mediteranean Summit in Paris on 13 July. The CoR initiative aiming at creating a consultative body composed of an equal number of regionally and locally elected representatives from EU states and the EU neighbourhood countries of the Mediterranean has been warmly welcomed and received in particular the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi and the Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader amongst others.
"As an EU institutional body we are ready to play our role in revitalising the Barcelona Process and we propose to add a territorial dimension to it. We are convinced that decentralised cooperation ensures a more effective grassroots approach, and helps to earn the support of the communities concerned. It will also help to stimulate economic growth in the southern neighbourhood countries of the European Union" Van den Brande stated.
As early as next year, the CoR will set up a "Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly" in cooperation with many associations of local government, in order to promote closer interaction of regional and local authorities within the Euro-Mediterranean area. The initiative will enable local and regional stakeholders to jointly raise their shared concerns and will give them a voice in the development and implementation of the EU's neighbourhood policy.
Source: www.cor.eu