PAPER D
Committee
: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,
PLANNING, TOURISM AND LEISURE SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE
Date : 28
OCTOBER 2002
Title
: ATTENDANCE
AT THE XXX GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CONFERENCE OF PERIPHERAL AND MARITIME
REGIONS
REPORT OF
THE HEAD OF PAID SERVICE
SUMMARY/PURPOSE
To inform members of content
and context of the XXX General Assembly of the Conference of Peripheral and
Maritime Regions (CPMR) held in Ioannina in the region of Epiriuus in northern
Greece on 18 – 20 September 2002.
BACKGROUND
The CPMR is an umbrella
organisation representing the peripheral and maritime regions of Europe. Members are primarily representatives of
regional democratically elected bodies (UK delegates represent Local Authorities
in England and Scotland, the Welsh Assembly for Wales) who also belong to at
least one of the 7 geographic Commissions which make up the CPMR:
·
Islands
Commission
·
North
Sea Commission
·
Atlantic
Arc Commission
·
Baltic
Commission
·
Intermediterranean
Commission
·
Black
Sea Commission
·
Balkans
Commission
The Isle of Wight belongs to
the Islands Commission. The CPMR is
seen as an organisation which has credibility in Brussels, both through its
geographic commissions and as an umbrella body, and is therefore an effective
lobbying mechanism. There is an ongoing
commitment to influence the European institutions on matters of common
interest, from which activities the Isle of Wight can continue to benefit.
CONFERENCE AGENDA
The conference included the
following general administrative items, which are necessary for the running of
the organisation:
·
Pre-meetings of the geographic commissions and the UK
delegation, primarily to vote on their nominations for the CPMR Political
Bureau and CPMR Chairman.
·
Presentation of the CPMR activity report and future
guidelines by the Secretary General
·
Voting of the new Political Bureau and its Chair
·
Presentation of Administrative and Financial matters
In addition there were
sessions on the following themes:
i) The future of Transport Policy
The discussion centred on
the White Paper on European Transport Policy for 2010 and the
proposals for amending the
trans-European transport network (TENS-T), which sets the priorities for
Europe, and hence the associated funding programmes.
The aims of the White Paper
are:
- To break the link between economic growth
and growth in transport by more efficient use of the means of transport.
- To reduce the chronic problems of
congestion, particularly on the road network
- To take account of sustainable development
in all priorities and public policy decisions relating to transport.
Much of the emphasis is in
transferring traffic from road to rail and, to a lesser extent, maritime
systems.
Main concerns of the CPMR
are:
- The strategy the EU will adopt for
revitalising maritime transport as it is felt that there should be more
emphasis on the maritime element.
- Fair infrastructure pricing – how can the
peripheries avoid being penalised if a system of taxation based on
distance travelled is introduced?
- The Community policy on competition is
restrictive when considering the use of public money to fund new maritime
and intermodal links with peripheral regions, thereby rendering them even
more disadvantaged and cut-off.
The strongest message from
CPMR was the need for regions to be more closely involved in the Community’s
decision making on infrastructure through closer partnership with national
transport ministers. This was justified
by the fact that regions play an increasing role in funding this infrastructure.
ii) The future of the Environmental Policy
It is the stated intent of the European
Commission that issues regarding the environment and sustainable development
will cross cut all activities. The CPMR
have drawn up a strategy setting out the “Position of the CPMR Regions with regard
to the environment and sustainable development”. This has four main aims:
- To ensure greater involvement of the
regions in formulating and implementing environmental policies and
legislation
- To contribute towards the policy for
integrating environmental issues into development policies
- To participate in international structures
and bodies set up to deal with areas in which the maritime regions are
directly involved, particularly maritime safety and the consequences of
climate change
- To develop and make available to the
regions the tools, methods and instruments designed to strengthen the
regions’ capacity for action, as provided for in the environmental policy.
In addition the CPMR plans to
develop exchanges of experience and best practice designed to benefit the
regions, including the dissemination of results of demonstration and applied
research projects such as those carried out under EU funded programmes such as
“LIFE”. This was put into action by
the Isle of Wight Council’s Coastal Management Unit, which is a leader in work
on Coastal Management and Climate Change, giving a presentation on their EU
funded projects at the conference.
As a result of the work of
CPMR they have:
·
Joined
with the Conference of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR – a similar
body to CPMR) to act as the EU Commission’s official contact when engaging the
regions in their work.
·
Been
requested by the Commission to take part in a Steering Group to define the
guidelines for a study on “Coastal Erosion: need for action”. The IoW was asked to sit on this Steering
Group, but has declined as they will be delivering part of the work – a
demonstration of the key part the Island plays in European work on Coastal
Management issues.
The CPMR were invited to
attend the Johannesburg summit and the Chairman gave a brief report,
emphasising the need for CPMR to decide how they were going to take the work
forward.
iii) Policy Debate:
The last thematic session
centred on the future role of the regions in Europe. The debates came under two headings:
·
The
place of regions in the European Union’s institutional set-up.
·
The
future Regional Policy and the Polycentric (ie many centred) Development
of the European territory.
It is apparent that as the
European Union expands:
·
Centralised
bureaucracy has become increasingly remote from the citizens it is supposed to
serve.
·
It
is less practicable to have all the institutions centred in Brussels
In an effort to address these
problems, the role of the regions is becoming increasingly important. Regional authorities are seen as being a
step closer to the citizen than national governments and therefore better
placed to engage the citizen. The CPMR
are one of the key European organisations representing the regions and as part
of the debate on the Convention on the Future of Europe have put forward
“Proposals for the introduction of the Regional dimension in the Constitutional
Treaty of the European Union”.
Resolutions passed included:
1)
The
Final Declaration based on a call for Territorial Cohesion. This concentrated on the areas that CPMR
would concentrate their work on in the year ahead:
·
Defining
the role and activity of the regions in the institutional system of the Union
·
Drafting
of future EU policies that will have a strong impact on the development of
European territories
·
The
participation of the regions of Europe in a controlled globalisation.
2) Response to the European Transport Policy 2010 which
covered 3 main topics:
·
The
need to address the problems of peripheral and ultra-peripheral areas more
adequately
·
Although
personal mobility is perceived to be an acquired right, the European Commission
should be taking more action to prioritise access to resources and promote
sustainable transport alternatives.
·
Although
the Commission has identified road congestion as a problem and is promoting a
shift to other transport means, too great a reliance is placed on rail
transport and CPMR consider that maritime transport should have greater
emphasis.
3) Role of CPMR in the Johannesburg Process
This acknowledges the need for
the European Regions to play an active role in implementing the principals laid
down in Johannesburg both at European and international level. The CPMR Political Bureau and General
Secretariat undertook to consider a range of activities to take this forward
including the adoption of Agenda 21 and setting up a network for exchanges of
experience.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ISLE OF
WIGHT
Members are well aware of the
increasing role of the regions in both UK and European governance and, consequently,
the importance of the Island having an input to the debate. Membership of the CPMR enables the Isle of
Wight Council to do this through a range of activities. At this conference the most relevant topics
were:
·
Future transport policy – the need to have more emphasis on maritime
transport for both passengers and goods in the future is of great relevance to
the Island. By helping to influence
policy, there will be knock on effect in influencing where EU funding is
directed.
·
Future environment policy – Coastal management and climate change are both high
on the current environment agenda.
These are both areas which have a direct relevance to the Island and in
which the Council’s Coastal Management team are considered to be leaders in the
field.
·
The
Isle of Wight is also committed to Agenda 21 and is in a good position to take
part in helping take forward the principals laid down in Johannesburg for
sustainable development.
·
Final Declaration – as part of the final declaration which was adopted the following
paragraph, which is the result of an amendment put forward by Gozo, Isle of
Wight and Orkney, is of particular relevance to the island:
The implementation of the
policy of Territorial Cohesion must “take into account…….the maritime
dimension of Europe, the geographic and physical constraints that are a
permanent handicap for certain areas, in particular the island and archipelago
areas, mountain areas, sparsely populated areas and peripheral areas……….
In this regard, the CPMR asks
that the island regions / authorities be classified on their own as Statistical
and Territorial Units and specific measures be applied to help them overcome
their permanent handicaps.”
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
Cost
of Cllrs Smart and Rees and the Principal European Officer attending the CPMR
conference in Greece.
LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS
None
