European Union News - Regional Policy

The Regions for Economic Change annual conference, organized by the European Commission, will be held on 20-21 May 2010 in Brussels.

Researchers, stakeholders and policy-makers from all over Europe gathered in Malmö for the Seminar "The ESPON Knowledge Base as Potential for Territorial Analysis and Policymaking at Regional Level". The ESPON Coordination Unit organised in close co-operation with the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union the second internal Seminar under the ESPON 2013 Programme on 2 and 3 December 2009.

The European Commission has created an information network for exchange of data accessible from the Internet, allowing inter-administrative cooperation in the internal market, by allowing direct communication electronically.  It will be through an r ed European authorities and the development of an electronic multilingual information exchange.

The Lisbon Monitoring Platform of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) has launched an online survey on "The European Economic Recovery Plan in Regions and Cities: One Year On", with the aim of assessing the impact of the economic and financial crisis at local/regional level.

The EU devotes 35% of its total annual budget to regional and social policy. Most of the money is earmarked for nationally-administered programmes to boost poorer regions. The European court of auditors estimated in its last report that at least 11% of the total amount reimbursed in 2007 did not qualify for EU financing

Heads of state and government meeting in Brussels on 29 and 30 October clinched a deal on climate financing. "The EU now has a very strong negotiating position when the countdown to Copenhagen has started," declared Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, current President of the European Council .The EU continues to take the lead in this process.

The General Affairs Council, under the Swedish chairmanship, at its meeting in Luxemburg, has adopted the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Thus, one of the Swedish Presidency's top priorities is brought to a successful conclusion. The ministers also prepared for the summit between the EU heads of state and government on 29–30 October.