European Union News - Regional Policy

The European Commission plans to make EU farm policy fairer to farmers, and at the same time more responsive to public concerns. Although this general objective was welcomed by Parliament's Agriculture Committee, also voiced concerns about how the plans could affect farmers, and the difficulty of putting them into practice.

Committee of the Regions President Mercedes Bresso supported in a meeting with Commissioner Johannes Hahn that the proposals about future regional funding were a step in the right direction. In the Committee's view, the Commission plans would benefit all regions, supporting their efforts to create better economic opportunities for all, and improving living conditions and sustained development. However, the Committee also considers that the idea of freezing regional aid for overspending countries would unfairly punish regional and local governments for decisions taken at national levels.

EU Solidarity Fund aid to repair storm damage in France and Portugal was approved by the Budgets Committee on Thursday. The February 2010 storms flooded large parts of France's Charente-Maritime and Vendée regions, leading to 53 deaths, and caused landslides and severe flooding on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The EU contributions are €35,635,750 for France and €31,255,790 for Portugal.

During the European Parliament Part Session held in November, the Chamber passed a resolution backing the EU "innovation partnerships" scheme, which aims to bring together EU, national and regional players across policy areas and industries to tackle specific societal challenges. Following this path the first partnership on "Active and Healthy Ageing" should be launched in early 2011.

The European Commission has published its 5th Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion, where it presents an extensive assessment of the economic, social and environmental situation and trends in EU regions and sets out a number of different options for adapting the policy post-2013. The conclusions put forward by this report will be the base for a public consultation on Cohesion Policy which will be open until 31 January 2011.

A total of 578.5 million Euro of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States is claimed back as a result of a Decision adopted on 4 November by the European Commission and published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 5 November.

Spanish city of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the French city of Nantes have been awarded as the next European Green Capitals prize for the years 2012 and 2013. These two cities have been selected among a group of six finalists for their commitment with the environment and for a sustainable urban planning.

During the celebration of the European Parliament plenary session, MEPs adopted on 7 October, two resolutions seeking a more flexible cohesion policy, which will take into account the characteristics of different regions as well as simplify the procedures and improve systems for monitoring and evaluation.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted on 6 October, during the celebration of the Open Days 2010 held in Brussels, a Resolution on the Cancun Climate Summit appealing to regions and local authorities to sign local climate action pacts setting out concrete measures in the fight against climate change.