CvdR schuift aan bij 4e overleg EU-Oostelijk Partnerschap (en)

Luc Van den Brande (BE/EPP), member of the CIVEX commission and former Committee of the Regions (CoR) president, and Dorin Chirtoacă, Mayor of Chișinău and co-chair of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), participated in the 4th meeting of the EU and the Eastern Partnership Countries' Foreign Ministers, which was held in Brussels on 22 July. They joined foreign ministers and high level delegates from the 28 EU Member States and the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine).

The meeting was co-chaired by High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton i, and the Commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy, Štefan Füle. The discussions focused on the preparation of the Eastern Partnership Heads of State and Government Summit scheduled to take place in Vilnius on 28-29 November, as well as further policy developments in the relations between the EU and its neighbours to the east.

Ministers and delegates reviewed the key forthcoming milestones including the signature and start of the Association Agreements between the EU and some of the countries concerned, the gradual setting up of free trade areas and measures to facilitate mobility of people and workers (especially visa liberalisation). Commissioner Füle took the opportunity to emphasise the Commission's intention to achieve tangible progress before its mandate expires at the end of 2014.

Luc Van den Brande and Dorin Chirtoacă presented CORLEAP's work and in particular the agenda of its annual conference which will take place in Vilnius on 3 September. The conference will deliver recommendations to the Heads of State and Government Summit, they said.

Mr Van den Brande also presented CORLEAP's three main priorities for 2013, namely fiscal decentralisation, public administration reform and territorial cooperation. He also explained the role of the CoR in the Eastern Partnership platforms. Mr Chirtoacă emphasised the role of local and regional representatives in the Eastern Partner countries for the delivery of services and reform to citizens. "The Vilnius CORLEAP meeting will be about delivering the Eastern Partnership at the local and regional level: more autonomy, more fiscal decentralisation, more subsidiarity" Mr Chirtoacă declared. He called on the EU to provide more financial mechanisms for local and regional authorities in the EaP countries, noting that €10,000 well spent at the local or regional level is far more visible and effective than €1million at national level.

The co-chairs, as well as the representatives of many EU member states and partner countries, openly recognised CORLEAP'S role in bringing the local and regional dimension to the Eastern Partnership and contributing to the shared ownership, accountability and sustainability of the process.