Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-20-Speech-1-241"
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"en.20081020.21.1-241"2
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"−
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I must tell you that I had an enormous amount of pleasure in applying, myself, the principles of governance during the preparation of this report with the various stakeholders.
Today, the time has come for the various private and public stakeholders to bring together our skills and to bring together our budgets and our timetables when we are involved in the same subject in the same geographical area. My report puts forward 37 specific actions intended to achieve this, but I am not going to list them, I am just going to indicate three key points.
The first key point is to give the various stakeholders, whether private, public, individuals or organisations, the means to implement this governance. The first point, and I stressed this to your colleague, Mrs Danuta Hübner, is to develop a practical guide to governance. No longer are we talking about abstract messages – this must be a practical guide.
The second point is the training of elected representatives within the framework of an Erasmus programme. Our local and regional elected representatives should be the real engines for change in this new governance of the territories. In addition – and this is the second key point – our European and national institutions must set an example. That is why I call in my report for an annual meeting of the ministers responsible for cohesion policies within the Council. Commissioner, as you know yourself, there are also differences between the Commissioners and the various directorates-general. We need to have more effective inter-departmental work. As for the Committee of the Regions, it has anticipated my request because two weeks ago it responded to our proposals.
Thirdly, it will of course be necessary, Commissioner, to have binding procedures. Since my time has run out, I will not be able to go into them in more detail, but please note that we expect the Commission to act now as the spearhead for this revolution in current practices. We must move on from words to actions. I and my fellow Members who have worked on these texts expect the Commission to take decisions that are both swift and effective.
Additionally, this method of working demonstrated its value in the preparation of the report, because it enabled me to take into account almost all the proposals made by my fellow Members, and on 9 September that was reflected in a unanimous vote within the Committee on Regional Development.
This consensus would, however, be worthless had it not found concrete form in a text that is both specific and consistent, as I will demonstrate to you in a moment. I would therefore like to give my very hearty thanks to all my fellow Members who participated in this report, and in particular to the shadow rapporteurs, who would very much have liked to have been here this evening to display their commitment.
Commissioner, all my thanks go, of course, to the Commission departments, and I would be grateful to you if you would pass them on, since this cooperation has been both constructive and pleasant.
I will also thank the European Economic and Social Committee and its rapporteur, Mr van Iersel, the Committee of the Regions, Mr Kisyov, and the many bodies that have played a part.
So, what are governance and partnership about? Well, we need to draw up an own-initiative report on this issue of governance and partnership because 'governance' and 'partnership' are terms that are used every day. You only have to pick up the newspapers or reports and you will always come across those words.
Commissioner, there is a time for words and there is a time for action. There is a time for setting targets and there is a time for giving oneself the means to achieve them. For some years now we have been hearing the constant refrain that governance must be improved. It is incorporated into our regulations, it is discussed in our debates, but not much progress is made. What is really happening, when we see that the integrated approach appears in the many reports issued by the Commission and Parliament?
Do our European policies on transport, the environment and regional development really take account of one another? Where is the integrated approach that we are hoping to see? Each policy has its own budget, its own minister, its own Commissioner and its own timetable. We can also see, just in relation to the Structural Funds, that the ERDF, the ESF and the EAFRD are applied on the ground separately.
Commissioner, in carrying out your duties, with your colleagues, you know that we all consider it very important to attain the Lisbon objectives. If we go on in this way, though, with such a compartmentalised approach on the ground, do you believe that this will be possible? Do you believe that an organisation, regardless of how powerful and how determined it is, can succeed by allowing this 'each for himself' approach to be adopted on the ground?"@en1
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