A MORE MODERN COHESION POLICY
Fabrizio Barca is Director General and Ministerial Counsellor at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and in April 2009 the European Commission tasked him with drafting an independent report on the future of cohesion policy. Fabrizio Barca also teaches at Sciences-Po University in Paris.
Mr Barca took part in the CPMR Political Bureau which was held in Gijon (ES) on 15/16 February 2010, where he presented his report to the many Regional Presidents who were in attendance. During the meeting, Mr Barca stated that he is in favour of a place-based cohesion policy that must, above all, be more innovative and modern in nature.
Enrico Mayrhofer:
Mr Barca, during the CPMR Political Bureau, the future of cohesion policy for after 2013 was discussed. Which do you think is the best regional development model the EU needs to introduce with a view to its next financial programming period?
Fabrizio Barca:
It must absolutely be a place-based approach which combines, on the one hand, the capacity to adapt projects and solutions to a given territory – as Dani Rodrick put it: “establishing and putting together the preferences and knowledge of those who live in those territories” - while on the other hand, funds must be made available only if certain general prerequisites are met by all beneficiaries. These prerequisites are the commitment to adapt institutions to principles established at European level and to establish modern benchmarks for results to allow a constant political debate.
Read the exclusive interview of Fabrizio Barca on Cohesion Policy 
Cohesion policy at the crossroads of Research and Innovation
"We are living a historical moment and we must be able to exploit all opportunities arising from it. A new Treaty is in force allowing for wider community powers in several policy areas and extending responsibilities for the pursuit of common EU objectives beyond the national governments and European institutions to local and regional Europe," stated Danuta Hübner, President of the Committee for Regional Development at the European Parliament, whilst attending the "Week of Innovative Regions in Europe " organised in Grenada from 15th to 17th March 2010 in the framework of the Spanish Presidency.
500 participants attended the event which focused on regions and the issue of efficient and effective use of the budget earmarked in the Structural Funds for Research Technology and Development (RTD) and Innovation, including their synergies with the Framework Programme (FP) and the Innovation and Competitiveness Programme (CIP).
Read more on the Week of Innovative Regions in Europe
Working together to promote an integrated strategy for the Atlantic Arc
This year, the Atlantic Arc Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) celebrates its 20th anniversary. It is therefore an opportunity to draw up an assessment of two decades of cooperation during which time this organisation has supported the reinforcement of the regions’ capacity for initiative, contributed to the development of networks of stakeholders, projects, experiments, and by the very same, to the concrete application of the principle of subsidiarity.
However, faced with the new challenges which emerging from the crisis and climate change represent, preparations for the future should now be underway, as well as considerations for a new sustainable model of development, in practice transforming the concept of territorial cohesion into concrete action. It is in this context that this CPMR Commission has been actively working for several months to promote an integrated strategy for the Atlantic Arc.
The aim of this mobilisation is first of all to determine the specific needs of the Atlantic territories and the priority actions to be implemented at trans-national level. This involves emphasising the maritime vocation of the Atlantic area, by providing backing for traditional industries (fishing, ship building…) and support for industries with high potential (energy, eco-activities etc). In addition, the peripheral character of the Atlantic regions remains a handicap to the discussions, which is where the necessity to reinforce the accessibility of this territory originates from.
Read the entire article on the Atlantic Arc
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW