During its last plenary session, the Committee of the Regions (COR) adopted an Opinion with the title “Decentralized cooperation in the reform of the development policy of the European Union”. The document, voted by a very large majority, presents a detailed analysis of the close degree of cooperation that currently exists between European local authorities and their counterparts in the developing countries. This cooperation is often so close and fruitful that the national governments themselves support it, especially as regards the programmes of healthcare, education and urban services of which the developing countries are the beneficiaries. In its Opinion the COR proposes that the Union should equip itself with a Platform for dialogue between the territorial authorities, similar to the Platform that already exists for dialogue between the NGOs, with the aim of giving a higher profile to the forms of decentralized cooperation, exchanges of experiences and good practices: moreover, the Committee invites the Council and the Commission to incorporate the “particularly valuable” principle of decentralized cooperation in national and Community policies of aid to development. Info: www.cor.eu.int
