Territorial Agenda: Presidency’s Proposal Accepted

At their informal meeting, territorial development ministers accepted the revised version of the Union’s territorial development agenda. The ministers speaking in the meeting appreciated the Presidency’s work and supported the proposal. A nice coincidence that Member States appointed Hungary to revise the Territorial Agenda of 2007. The revision process started in 2009.

“Our experience about the review of the (first) Territorial agenda in 2007 and the lessons of Member States, have demonstrated that in order to strengthen territorial cohesion, more action is needed, not by the definition of new targets, but the fine-tuning of the existing ones; and their breakdown to operative measures,” said Tamás Fellegi in the meeting.

Highlighting local aspects

The review was necessary because Member States now face new challenges compared to the state of play, four years ago; and territorial cohesion has become a Union objective of the same significance, as economic and social cohesion came into force since the Treaty of Lisbon was established.

The new Territorial Agenda is adapted to the Europe 2020 Strategy, which reflects the conclusions of the 5th Cohesion Report of the Commission, and opens up new horizons for territorial-based, integrated developments, Mr Fellegi said.

Territorial specialties

The objective of the Presidency is to build both regional and sectoral developments on territorial specificities, and to adapt projects to local characteristics in order to increase not only their level of acceptance, but also the chances of their successful implementation, said the Development Minister, earlier to eu2011.hu.

In his speech, Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn welcomed this approach and said that Member States must implement the Europe 2020 Strategy at a local level. According to the Commissioner, this is one of the reasons why there should be more focus on the territorial aspects of cohesion policy in the future.

Danuta Hübner, head of the competent committee of the European Parliament, former commissioner for regional policy, agreed with much of the Presidency’s proposal and believed that the territorial approach would also provide an appropriate basis for the debate on the contents and budget of cohesion policy, which is scheduled to start in the next six months.

Implementation left to Member States

The minister stressed that Member States are primary actors in implementing the Territorial Agenda, but split competency also shifts some responsibility to EU institutions to provide professional and methodological support; as well as to encourage the enforcement of territorial principles.

“In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, we must find each affected territorial level - states, regions, capitals, large cities, small communities, rural areas, islands, mountainous areas, seaside areas - so that we can involve them in the planning and implementation stages of developments,” underlined Mr Fellegi, stating the significance of multi-level governance and regional dimension. At the same time, he advocated the coordination of the needs and interests of territorial and sectoral actors to open up the road to place-based integrated developments. “We hope that integrated development will be a key expression of development policy in the future,” the Minister stated.

ESPON Programme

He also highlighted that the means must be renewed as well. A case in point is the ESPON-programme, the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, which is coordinated by Luxembourg, which offer a marked methodological and territorial knowledge base.

Every participant praised the utility of the ESPON programme scheduled to end in 2013 and supported its extension. Several participants highlighted that many Member States had been able to utilise the territorial analysis, statistical databases and maps created by the program. It was agreed that the expertise available in the program, should not be left unexploited and should remain necessary in the coming future. At the same time, the ministers opined that the operation of the programme should be renewed, the governance structure be optimised and research capacities should be improved at both Union and at Member State levels.