European and External Relations Committee
Meeting date: Thursday, September 20, 2012
Official Report
407KB pdf
Committee of the Regions
As a matter of interest to the committee, I should let members know that I have been invited along to some sessions on the Committee of the Regions. I have identified a few of them that tie in with our work programme, and I hope, with the support of the committee, to go along to them.
One session is about strengthening the role of nations and regions in the recovery strategy. It is about how to identify more EU funding and use it to boost your economy, which is obviously very relevant. Another session is called cities of excellence, but we could also apply the lessons to our rural areas. It is about seeing how other parts of Europe have approached horizon 2020, identifying where they have done it extremely well and learning lessons from their experience. I would be happy to report back to the committee on the sessions.
I need to get a bit more detail on a number of other sessions that I would probably be interested in attending. As I say, I would be happy to report back to the committee on them. I seek the committee’s indulgence to sanction me to go across to those sessions. I would go out on Monday and come back on Tuesday, so it would be a very short visit in the first two days of the October recess.
It is important that you do that for us. If you do not engage, you will not pick up valuable lessons. Such engagement saves us from reinventing the wheel.
Okay. Thanks very much.