Date of release : 14-05-2005

Policy area :

Event : Informal Meeting of Ministers for Regional Policy and Territorial Cohesion

An informal meeting of the Ministers for Regional Policy and Territorial Cohesion will be held in Luxembourg on 20 and 21 May 2005, chaired by Mr Jeannot Krecké, Minister for the Economy and Foreign Trade, and Mr Jean-Marie Halsdorf, Minister for Home Affairs and Town and Country Planning.

The first part of the meeting will be on regional policy. In July 2004 the European Commission introduced the proposals for regulation governing the Structural Funds for the period 2007 to 2013. In this context, the ministers will have an initial exchange of views on the Community’s strategic policies for cohesion, presented by Mrs Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, and Mr Vladimír Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. These strategic policies will serve as a basis for future programming of the cohesion policy.

At the second session on territorial cohesion, the Ministers will discuss the operational contribution of the territorial dimension to the Lisbon/Göteborg Strategy on the basis of a framework document entitled "Status and Perspectives of the Territory of the European Union." This document will serve as an enriching base of information and dialogue. The debate of the meeting will be driven by a study presented by ESPON (The European Spatial Planning Observatory Network), on the interconnections between the "European Spatial Development Perspective" (ESDP) and the Lisbon Strategy.