Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-02-Speech-2-010"
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"en.20030902.1.2-010"2
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"Mr President, I too would first of all like to congratulate the rapporteurs, Mr Mastorakis and Mr Pomés Ruiz, for drafting very successful reports. Economic and social disparities between the Member States have lessened, but inequalities within the Member States have persisted and even deepened. The report reiterates Parliament’s stance on pursuing an inclusive Community cohesion policy.
After enlargement a large share of regional and structural aid will go to the new Member States. That is inevitable. We must not, however, pit regions in difficulties in the present Union against poor regions in the new Member States. Through united efforts we can take care of both.
Our group supports the main arguments in the reports. I am not going to go over the content of the reports again here, but I would like to highlight the importance of a few matters. The reports call for combining regional policy with other policies. With regard to economic, agricultural, transport and competition policy, for example, regional considerations should be taken into account more.
When the Union enlarges, the need to reform regional policy will intensify. Our group backs the Commission’s aims to simplify and clarify regional policy and urges them to accomplish this. At the same time, we have to make improvements in result orientation and programme quality, and the role that the regions play alongside the Member States and the Commission must be strengthened. This will demand determined work on the part of the Commission and the Member States also. The new programming period can no longer afford the burdensome levels of administration that frequently afflict the current regional and structural policy, and the delays and apparent messing around that is associated with it.
It is important that the special features of regions suffering from permanent geographical handicaps are recognised and identified and that solutions are sought for them. Islands, mountain regions and sparsely populated regions all have the same kind of problems. There are many in our group who have been active in trying to solve the problems of island and mountain regions. I myself know best the sparsely populated regions of the north. Development in the Union’s northernmost region is overshadowed by long distances, a low density of population, a cold climate and an ageing population as a result of people moving away in droves. The same region nevertheless holds many great opportunities.
I am grateful to Mr Pomés Ruiz for proposing that sparsely populated regions in the north should be taken into account in the Union’s constitutional treaty. Mr Pomés Ruiz’s report has increased cohesion. We understand one another better now. The problems in the various less favoured zones can be solved through good levels of cooperation as part of the Union’s cohesion policy."@en1
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