Finse minister van Regionale en Gemeentezaken: juridische zaken afgewikkeld voor nieuwe termijn structuurfondsen (en)

"All EU legal instruments for the next Structural Fund period have been adopted. Last Friday, the Justice and Home Affairs Council adopted the Community strategic guidelines for cohesion policy. This makes it possible to launch the relevant programmes right from the beginning of 2007," said the Finnish Minister of Regional and Municipal Affairs, Hannes Manninen, at the Opening Session of the Open Days event (European Week of Regions and Cities) in Brussels, today on 9 October.

"Development measures implemented in regions are essential to achieve the EU's competitiveness objectives," pointed out Mr Manninen. He said that it was necessary to respond to the challenges arising from the globalisation of the economy by improving the EU's competitiveness. "In the future, we can base our competitiveness and prosperity only on high-level expertise, specialisation and efficient networking," he added.

"The transfer of expertise and knowledge through networking is crucial. This is particularly important to remote and sparsely populated regions which may lack key actors and expertise. Efficient networking enables us to make better use of the development potential of all regions in the EU," Mr Manninen pointed out.

Cooperation between the private and public sectors has a significant impact on the competitiveness and prosperity of the regions. According to Mr Manninen, it is essential that the regional actors - businesses, training and research institutes and public authorities - cooperate with each other and that the measures implemented respond to the needs of businesses and industry. "An effective and transparent public sector enhances cooperation between key actors of regional innovation policy and promotes the creation of an infrastructure supporting the innovation structure," he added.

For further information, please contact Director of Regional Development Antti Valle, tel. +358 9 160 42312