European Union News - Regional Policy

Eurostat published its figures which show that on January 2011, 41% of the population of the EU lived in urban regions, 35% in intermediate regions and 23% in rural regions. In addition, in the EU in 2010, the population of urban regions grew by 5.2 per 1000 inhabitants and intermediate regions by 2.2‰, while rural regions decreased by 0.8‰.

The Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament call on the Council to start talks on the Commission's proposal for a revised regulation for European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation. According to the CoR's President, Mercedes Bresso, by correcting a set of restrictive and confusing provision on the current legislation, the law will be at the service of the territorial development.

The agreement signed by the European Investment Bank and Gas Natural Fenosa is the second instalment of a total €500 million loan. With this agreement, the company will develop actions to spread its distribution network across 11 Spanish regions, with 59% located in convergence regions.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report in which it states that the effectiveness and efficiency of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) spending on financial instruments for SMEs were hampered by the regulatory framework being inappropriate for the different types of financial instruments used.

Mayors and President of the Regions from all EU Member States adopted the “Copenhagen Declaration”. The Declaration expresses the political will of European cities and regions to achieve a sustainable urban development. Moreover, cities and regions called upon the European Union to share its best practices.

Following a discussion of the outstanding issues, the majority of the delegations at the Transport Council meeting, could accept the general approach on new guidelines defining a long-term strategy for the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). In addition, the Council also stated its position on the draft regulation on a revision of the 1996 directive on groundhandling services at airports.

The main message delivered by the Committee of the Regions at the Fifth European Summit of Regions and Cities is the importance of sustainable development and green growth in Europe's cities and regions to overcome the crisis, not just to fight climate change. The CoR also stressed the need for a coherent and integrated EU policy for urban areas together with a genuine multi-level approach.

The responsible of the drafting the opinion for the Committee of the Regions on the Commission proposals for the "Re-use of public sector information" and "Open data – an engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance", Ms. Anne Karjalainen, will meet all the stakeholders in 26 of March with the aim to gather views on such proposals.