Fribourg (CH), 15 May 2009

Regional presidents from across wider Europe once again called on national governments to ensure that regions have the competences and budgets they need to effectively tackle the economic crisis. They also demanded greater involvement in developing and implementing EU policies such as the Agenda for Growth and Jobs and the future cohesion policy.

“Our demands for a greater say in national and EU policy-making are nothing new,” Assembly of European Regions’ (AER) president Michèle Sabban said, “but the severity of the economic crisis has brought to those demands a new urgency. If ever there was a time to endow the regions with more powers and financial resources to tackle global challenges, it is now.”

Meeting in Fribourg, Switzerland, AER’s political bureau focused much of its two-day session on further developing regional responses to the economic crisis.

Vice-president of the Fribourg regional government, Beat Vonlanthen, who yesterday joined other AER politicians and local academics in a public debate on the crisis, said: “The State must apply such measures as are also justified in the long term. That’s why we should focus the economic stimulus plans especially on innovation. But special attention must also be given to the situation of young people and to assure that, to the degree possible, no young person succumbs to unemployment.”

Some Photos of the event:

Based on the results of a questionnaire asking member regions how they are dealing with the economic crisis, AER’s political bureau adopted today its declaration, “European Regions: A Trump in Tackling the Economic Crisis”:

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