On October 8, the Plenary Session of the European Committee of the Regions adopted unanimously the own-initiative opinion “The CoR’s contribution to the renewed Territorial Agenda, with special emphasis on community-led local development” from rapporteur Radim SRŠEŇ (CS/EPP), Regional Councilor of Olomouc, and former president and vice-president of ELARD, currently council member of ELARD, and his expert Marion Eckardt, Manager of the Swedish LAG Lokalt Ledd Utveckling Halland (Sweden) and current vice-president of ELARD.
The main outlines of the 55 policy recommendations adopted by the European Committee of the Regions are as follows:
- the strengthening of the territorial dimension in a wider range of policy fields and actively encourage more bottom-up territorial visions/strategies, which should be coherent with a wider framework;
- stronger links between cohesion policy and TA in all stages of programming, implementation and monitoring of programmes, and the significant need to overcome the current geographical and sectoral separation of EU funds;
- the endorsement of the idea that the TA post-2020 should not be a brand new document, as the current TA 2020 still remains valid in major aspects;
- the introduction of a mechanism for a quick update of the TA post-2020 to quickly respond to new and emerging challenges that may shape the TA post-2020, without the need for a complete overhaul of the whole document;
- mandatory earmarking of 8% for CLLD from all ESI funds and EAFRD to fully utilise the potential of the tool and synergies of different funds for integrated local development;
- the carrying out of work by CoR and the European Parliament to ensure that multi-funded CLLD continues to include the EAFRD, including for the 2021–2027 period;
- CLLD regulation at EU level, setting a unified set of rules for all ESI funds in order to reduce the enormous bureaucratic burden and gold-plating;
- the creation by the Commission of a CLLD support unit at EU level to support communication, capacity building, networking and transnational cooperation of all LAGs in all funds;
- a stronger support to multi-fund CLLD, for example through a higher co-financing rate.
With the aim to increase the influence of regions and local authorities in Europe and therefore in the EU legislation, this opinion will be sent to EU institutions. Apart from these procedures, this opinion can meanwhile be used to negotiate with national authorities.
Find bellow the available translations of the CoR’s opinion:
- [EN] The CoR’s contribution to the renewed Territorial Agenda with special emphasis on Community-Led Local Development