The AER gathered the 16 May in Paris, 250 European, national and regional decision makers as well as representatives from the business and banking sector, in the presence of Janusz Lewandowski, European Commissioner for financial programming and Budget, Jean-Paul Huchon, President of the Ile-de-France Regional Council (FR) and Laurent Fabius, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.

AER outgoing President Michèle Sabban’s message : “Confronted with the crisis, which is affecting Europe, regions must take their place as a true driving force, bringing up proposals. Their current difficulties should not prevent them from fully exploiting their strengths and potential. We have to keep in mind that the majority of the European laws are implemented at local and regional level and the budget for regional policies represents the European Union second budgetary position (35% of the EU budget). That is why we have made today 10 firm recommendations in order to initiate new public policies and mobilise their territories. We just gave out personally our recommendations to Commissioner Lewandowski and Minister Fabius, and the AER will now bring this message and commitments to the EU Institutions as well as to all member States!”.