In a meeting held in Brussels between the presidents of associations representing local and regional authorities, the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mercedes Bresso, and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, local and regional leaders asked Barroso to put forward ambitious EU budget proposals in order to stimulate the economy. In addition, they called to consider their role in Europe 2020 strategy.

For the local and regional leaders, in order to respond to the challenges ahead and to support economic recovery, the new EU budget must be substantial. They also highlighted that a fair share of the upcoming budget should be dedicated to cohesion policy. Furthermore, they underlined that the Europe 2020 strategy must create a sense of ownership among all levels of government, as a large number of the strategy priorities concern local and regional authorities.

The President of the Conference of European Regions with legislative powers (REGLEG), Jean-Luc Vanraes, stressed that it has to be given a central position to subsidiarity in order to defend democratic values. On the cohesion policy, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) stated that European territorial cohesion has a fundamental meaning in border regions. Thus, a strong cohesion policy is an essential instrument for these areas. Nazario Pagano, President of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) added that the European Commission should introduce a category of intermediate Regions whose level of per capita GDP is between 75% and 90% of the EU average, for the future planning period of European structural funds, in support of the position expressed by the European Parliament.

Michèle Sabban, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) stated that EU needs a stronger European neighbourhood policy. She also welcomed the recent EU communication on the reform of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which will help to ensure the political stability of certain eastern European states. However, she underlined that regional democracy is a key element of any progress towards democratisation, therefore, the regions should become true partners, and not merely beneficiaries, of the ENP.