FROM BERLIN TO BERLIN
SANS SOUCI?
"Sans souci": the royal palace
built by the Frederick the Great of Prussia during the Age
of Enlightenment translates from the French as "carefree",
but will it ease our worries about the future construction
of our common European house?
The
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has indicated that she is
keen to help re-launch the process during the six-month German
Presidency of the Union.
The
meetings in Berlin all seem to put a decisive emphasis on
the different stages of the EU's existence.
9
November 1989: the fall of the Berlin Wall, and with it the
collapse of the world's equilibrium established after World
War II. Until then, the threat posed by the alternative Soviet
system had pushed EU Member States to deepen their Community
and make it a model of "economic and social cohesion".
This led to the introduction of EU regional policy to offer
all regions fair opportunities for development. This joint
determination led to an increase in the European budget from
1.08% of the EU's gross wealth in 1988, to 1.27% right up
until 1999. The Member States kept this momentum going with
the launch of the single currency, the enlargement processes
to include the new countries that had regained their sovereignty,
and the creation of the Committee of the Regions. But there
would be no fresh impetus after that...
Xavier
Gizard
Secretary General
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THE
EUROPEAN REGIONS IN THE ECONOMIC GLOBAL MARKET
The challenges for the period 2014-2020
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By
Philippe Cichowlaz
Rarely
has a European debate been shrouded in such uncertainty as the
one that is opening up today on the future of EU policies and
the place of regional policy in Europe.
Hardly
a year after agreement was reached in December 2005 on the financial
framework for the programming period 2007-2013, the "rendez-vous
clause" sets the date for a review of the EU budget in
2008-2009. This calls for urgent and rapid reflections and makes
any serious forecasting of the challenges of the next period,
2014-2020, very difficult..
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AFTER
ERIKA,
A "NAPOLI PACKAGE"
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What
has happened recently on the container ship "MSC Napoli"
must make us consider the constant attention that the authorities
have to give to maritime transport.
Initially,
we can quite rightly congratulate ourselves on the effectiveness
of the cooperation procedures which are in place between States
- as it happens between France and the United Kingdom - as part
of the "Manche Plan"...
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BEST
OF LUCK TO MR AHNER AND MR FOTIADIS!
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The
Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) would
like to congratulate Mr Dirk Ahner, Director-General in charge
of Regional Policy, and Mr Fokion Fotiadis, Director-General
in charge of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, on their appointment
to new positions within the European Commission.
We
should like to wish them every success in these particularly
important policy areas for our 155 member Regions and hope that
we might continue to enjoy the high standard of dialogue that
we were fortunate enough to share with their predecessors.
Best
of luck in your new jobs!
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