Almost 400 answers were sent to the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion. This crucial European debate was promoted by the European Commission, following an initiative of the former Commissioner Danuta Hübner (PL), currently Chairwoman of the EP’s Committee on Regional Development. One of those answers, elaborated by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), is attached to the AEBR Newsletter number 15, September 2009. You can get our contribution to the Green Paper by following these simple indications:
Go to the AEBR online forum (http://forum.aebr.net/en/index.php). Log in by introducing "aebr" as user, also "aebr" as password. Then, go to "AEBR Newsletter - September 2009" and click on "English version with English Annexes". The first document is the Newsletter, and the third one is our statement on the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion. If you have any difficulty, just paste the following link in your navigation bar after logging in:
http://forum.aebr.net//en/forum_topic.php?topic_id=49
There, you can also find some other AEBR contributions: on the future CBC, the Lisbon Strategy after 2009, a proposal for a EU Strategy on the former Iron Curtain areas, the discussion document on rural development initiated by the Landrat Hermann Steinmaßl (Traunstein, DE), the report of MEP Tune Kelam (EE), suiveur of the European Parliament on CBC issues, the AEBR position papers on TEN-T Networks, CB Health and Patients' Rights, and on the Barca Report, as well as some recommendations to improve the EGTC and the Interreg Programmes. We also include a summary on the Eastern European Partnership, the new proposal to strengthen the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Please leave your reply there and help us to improve our communication efforts with European border and cross-border regions.
Coming back to the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion, main hint of the territorial debate since long ago, it has situated territorial cooperation at the core of territorial cohesion and has promoted an extraordinary debate within all European territorial stakeholders. These contributions have confirmed the added value of territorial cooperation, as the own Commission affirmed in the presentation of the Seminar organized last 25th September 2009 in Brussels, devoted to the cross-border, transnational and interregional strands of territorial cooperation.
The Seminar had as general purpose to stock contributions to the Green Paper in the field of territorial cooperation by:
• Giving a general overview of the contributions (convergent and controversial aspects)
• Presentint significant contributions coming from cross-border regions and transnational networks (best practices and answers to Green paper's questions)
• Concluding on possible policy options, and the policy process state of the art.
You can see the programme, download presentations and even see video recordings of the interventions at the following CoR link:
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/territorial/programme_en.cfm?nmenu=2
Make your comments, participate, use any available channel to raise your opinions, suggestions, or proposals. Our tasks in the AEBR (and therefore Cross-Border Cooperation) can be very much enriched with your valuable participation!
Your AEBR Team
