'Lokale overheden zouden een grotere rol moeten spelen binnen besluitvorming EU' (en)

Spain's Third Vice President and Minister of Territorial Policy, Manuel Chaves, expressed Spain's support for local governments taking on greater importance in EU decisions, especially given the current objectives of overcoming the economic crisis, creating employment and maintaining the European social model.

Local governments from 42 countries are meeting in Catalonia until Wednesday to create the "Barcelona Agenda", which is defining solutions to the economic crisis, climate change and the social inclusion problems to be solved by 2020, from the perspective of local governance, in the hope these will influence the EU.

Those participating at the opening ceremony of the meeting, entitled "Networked local governments for a new Europe", included Manuel Chaves; the President of the Generalitat de Cataluña regional government, José Montilla; the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu; the President of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Pedro Castro; the President of the Provincial Government of Barcelona, Antoni Fogué, and the Secretary General of the Committee of the Regions of Europe, Gerhard Stahl.

In his speech, Manuel Chaves pointed out that the Spanish Presidency of the EU is committed to applying the Treaty of Lisbon, lifting the EU out of the financial crisis "as soon as possible", creating employment and "ensuring that the EU becomes rooted in the conscience and desires of its citizens" through "multilevel governance", in other words, with a bigger role for local government.

Manuel Chaves advocated moving on from an "outdated pyramid model" and strengthening a kind of Europe that serves the real needs of its citizens, in which he believes local councils should play "a more active role" in the EU.

José Montilla, President of the Generalitat de Cataluña (the regional government in Catalonia), called for the participation of local and regional governments in defining aspects such as the "new financial outlook" for the EU and in the process of building Europe in general.

Montilla pointed out that at times of economic crisis, such as the present, the challenge must be to maintain the European social model, saying that, "none of these challenges in Europe can be tackled without the participation of local government".

The President of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, Pedro Castro, warned that the crisis must involve every administration and said that it will be "almost impossible" to emerge from the crisis without the help of local councils, since 70% of EU legislation is applied at this level.

The Secretary General of the Committee of the Regions of the EU, Gerhard Stahl, highlighted the fact that even local governments had a say at the most recent climate change summit in Denmark.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, called upon the EU to declare the Mediterranean rail corridor a priority, lamenting that there are those who consider local councils "subsidiary entities".

The desire of regions and local councils to be involved in helping to overcome the crisis was a constant theme in the speeches of all the representatives of the local and regional entities at the meeting.