The Walloon Region
"The aim of territorial cohesion should be taken more seriously in the definition and implementation of sectoral community policies with a recognised territorial impact and pertinence."
The Nord-Pas de Calais Region
"The Nord-Pas de Calais Region would like the European Union to give a strong sign of approval to the Territorial Cohesion Policy by mobilising a more ambitious budget for the next period of 2014-2020. This would enable community intervention in all the European regions."
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
"Territorial cohesion requires the development of strategies and multi-level governance in order to guarantee an efficient and effective use of available potential.[...] Special attention should be given to improving territorial integration and to developing cooperation between regions beyond their borders, i.e., to developing and strengthening cross-border cooperation."
The Champagne-Ardenne Region
"It would seem judicious that the new phase of implementing a EU territorial policy take into consideration in particular cross-border issues. With the Schengen zone, cross-border mobility is growing on a daily basis in a number of areas. […] It is important to reflect on the harmonisation of rules and regulations, in particular structural ones, between States."
The Generalitat de Catalunya
"The participation of towns, supra-municipal authorities, regions and all stakeholders with a vested interest (NGOs, etc) would allow for policies to be adjusted to the different socio-economic contexts and contexts of governance."
The Collectivité Territoriale of Corsica
"The Collectivité Territoriale of Corsica underlines the important role of territorial cooperation which offers considerable opportuni-ties to insular regions to facilitate their connectivity and their territorial integration and to favour their economic development. It is also of the opinion that the 150 km limit criterion for access to the status of cross-border territorial cooperation must be eliminated."
The Euregion Meuse-Rhine
"In the context of territorial cohesion policy, the European Commission can stimulate the development of border regions by initiating experiments in cross-border multilevel governance, using a number of European border areas as pilots."
The Trinational Eurodistrict Basel
"Regions along the border, which are often underdeveloped, need to be seen as having development potential for the future. [...] It would appear advisable to take greater account of the repercussions of border situations within the framework of EU policies. In this conjunction, the respective regions, in collaboration with national states, need to ascertain whether the distortions caused by the competitive situation can be alleviated - in order to continue realising integrated metropolitan regional development."
The Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai
"It should be possible for the territorial cohesion policy to include a specific part relating to cross-border governance. [...] In order to ensure the development of new forms of governance, it is also important in our opinion to support the mobility and training of elected representatives and officers of local and regional authorities in order to encourage the formation of a cross-border culture and new competencies. This is all the more necessary as EGTCs are structures under public law."
The Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurosdistrict
"Legal instruments or provisions permitting a genuine transfer of skills, which the current forms of cooperation groupings (EGTC, LCCG) enable only partially, would give a new dimension to the pioneering vocation of the Eurodistrict. A reflection on the legal environment of such initiatives would result in cross-border experiments in areas contributing to the rationalisation of public expenditure and the improvement of the quality of the lives of its citizens."
The Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion
"At the time when the [five] regions [of the Alps Mediterranean Euroregion] are at the final stages in the establishment of an EGTC (European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation) […], they have to point out the absence of a European budgetary instrument which would allow for the development of truly structural actions to be carried out at this level of decision making."
The Regio Pamina Eurodistrict
"In relation to the metropolitan region of the Upper Rhine, the smallest scale of Eurodistricts offers specific advantages within the context of territorial cohesion and the importance of regional governance."
The full list of contributions can be downloaded at: European commission website
Source: Cross-border news, No.49, April 2009
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