The future of cohesion policy”Cohesion policy must continue evolving”, contributing “to the implementation of the EU agenda in the field of employment and growth, promoting our regions’ endogenous development”. Commissioner Danuta Hubner, in her address delivered during an international conference held last week in Maribor (Slovenia), communicated the Executive’s guidelines in this field. “This is the reason why the 2007-2013 reform mostly guided cohesion policies on investments ensuring the highest spin-off in terms of European regions’ competitiveness promotion”. The purpose of the meeting promoted by the Union’s current presidency, was to assess the impact of this community policy and “prepare the grounds for the imminent debate on EU budget”, a large part of which is devoted to regional cohesion and development. Commissioner Hubner added: “The challenges awaiting European regions require policies which will address structural factors of competitiveness, environmental and social sustainability, at the same time promoting the restructuring of regional economies focusing on their specific potential”. The preliminary outcomes of a broad consultation initiated past September by the Commission were also presented in Maribor: “Respondents were in large majority in favor of cohesion policy implemented at European level and expressed themselves against any attempt at renationalizing it”, Hubner explained. The fifth intermediate report is planned for June, while in September the Executive will be adopting a green Book. Finally, by 2008 will be issued “an analytical document in which the Commission will develop possible scenarios per European regions in 2020”. Road safety: the EU intervenesMore safety on the roads of the Old continent. This is the purpose of the Barroso Commission, which adopted a directive proposal “aimed at facilitating transnational implementation of the directive envisaging violations to the Highway Codes, viewed as the most dangerous violations in terms of safety”. The concrete objective is to ensure that drivers may be identified and sanctioned when an offence in a Member State different from the one where the vehicle was registered is committed. This measure is expected to increase caution and safety and entail – according to the Community legislator – “a positive change in the attitude of transiting drivers and in residents”. It will finally put an end “to the existing treatment disparities between these two categories”. Today, if a driver commits an offence to the Code with a vehicle registered in a different EU Country “he goes unpunished since nor he nor the vehicle’s registration address can be verified”. “Road safety – explained the Commissioner in charge Jacques Barrot – is a problem we are all concerned with. In 2001 we had set the goal of halving the number of deaths caused by car accidents. We must commit ourselves right now in its achievement. The directive is a significant measure”. In practical terms, a community network for electronic data flow will soon allow to transmit offence notifications abroad. “The proposed directive concerns four kinds of Highway Code violations: high speed, drunk-driving, lack of safety belts, and driving through a red light”. These four different behaviors “are the major cause of car accidents leading to death in 75% of the cases. Council of Europe: violence and racism in StadiumsYoung football fans from 30 different Countries met in the Euro-Park in Rust (Germany) to discuss about racism and violence in stadiums. The initiative, promoted April 7-10 by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with UEFA, originated from the fact that “acts of racism continue casting a shadow over football games”. It is therefore necessary “to act preventively in view of Europe’s football championship” scheduled for next summer. The course was part of the Council of Europe Campaign for youth called “All different, all equal”. A statement issued by the promoters highlighted recent episodes of racism: a Jew, subscriber to the Chelsea Team, was attacked with anti-Semitic words during a match of the U.K. While in Metz, France, some fans launched racist insults against a Moroccan footballer, the defender of Valenciennes team Abdeslam Ouaddou”. The Council of Europe thus scheduled the meeting in Rust, where seminars on the following topics were held: the youth and violence in sport; the role of public powers, the diffusion of a guide supporting clubs’ elaboration of a “supporters’ charter”; the “exchange of experiences with government and local authorities regarding acts of violence”.
