Eyes are being focused on the Committee of the Regions in Brussels this week. The “Open Days” of the advisory institution established ten years ago thanks to the Treaty of Maastricht are planned from 27 to 30 September. On the programme is a week of events (debates, seminars, exhibitions, visits) with the aim of “relaunching the centrality of regional policies as part of the process of European integration”. The Committee, chaired by the German Peter Straub, is in fact aimed at increasing the contribution of the local communities to the policies of the Twenty-Five. At the present time it is evaluating the proposals of the Commission for the future of the policy of cohesion. In July the Executive presented some legislative proposals for this important sector that now absorbs a third of the entire EU budget. In the document on the financial prospects for the period 2007/2013, 336 billion euros are allocated to it. The forthcoming events promoted by the Committee of the Regions include the seminar on “Competitive Regions” due to be held in Rovaniemi, in Finland, from 13 to 15 October, and the “Summit of Cities” in Noordwijk-Leiden (Netherlands) on 18-19 October, organized jointly by the Commission and the Dutch government.
