European Union News - Regional Policy

The European Commission Action team is going to Spain, where unemployment is affecting almost 50% of young people, to develop targeted plans together with national experts to be included in the National Reform Programmes which will be submitted to the European Commission (mid-April) as part of the European Semester of EU economic governance.

The Committee of the Regions adopted an opinion in which highlight the key contribution of local authorities to the framing and implementation of integration policies. It also calls for a strategic partnership between the European Commission and European networks of cities and regions.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) wants to ensure that cities and regions are more involved in framing, implementing and evaluating EU policies with a territorial impact, and will lay the necessary foundations for the success of those policies. The opinion adopted within its plenary session recommends new measures to consolidate the exercise of European governance.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) issued a number of recommendation aiming to make the rules more flexible and to promote the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), the EU's legal instrument for territorial cooperation. According to the CoR, the set-up and operational procedures are still unduly complex, although the instrument is now firmly established and has clearly demonstrated its potential.

The Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM), an initiative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, has the objective to describe and analyse innovation policy trends across EU regions. RIM provides detailed information on regional innovation policies for 20 EU Member States based on the work of a network of experts.

The Communication "A simplification agenda for the 2014-2020 MFF" published by the Commission brings altogether in one single document the proposed 120 changes to simplify the rules governing EU funding for Small and Medium Enterprises, towns and regions, students, scientists and others.

Siim Kallas, the EU Transport Commissioner, stressed in a conference that investments in transport are critical for creating employment and a return to economic growth. In his speech, Kallas focused on the key issue of transport financing and set out four major deliverables for 2012-2013, to get the conditions for transport financing right.

The third plenary of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) ended with the call on an innovative Euro-Mediterranean cohesion policy through the promotion of the access of local and regional authorities’ to ENP funding, the extension of the Covenant of Mayors to Southern Mediterranean cities and regions and the enforcement of territorial cooperation in strategic fields like sustainability and energy infrastructures.

The data on EU structural funds in 2011 published by the European Commission, show that the effective use of these funds gathered pace in 2011. EU structural funds in 2011 helped to further the Single Market through investments in a broad range of strategic and growth-enhancing areas, including broadband connections, research and development infrastructure, innovation projects, new Small- and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and education.