Remarks on Regional Development and Growth

It is a great pleasure to be able to welcome you all to this meeting. I have been looking forward to this meeting because I think that it's important - from many aspects.

I shall come back to that later. But first of all I would like to use the opportunity to say a few words about the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, what has been achieved during this period, mainly at the European Council in Gothenburg last week.

As you already know the Swedish Presidency has three priorities: The Enlargement, the Employment and the Environment. It is with satisfaction that we now can observe that we have reached important goals within these priorities!

It was concluded that "the enlargement process is irreversible" and that the first negotiations should be completed by the end of 2002. The objective is that those countries should participate in the European Parliament elections of 2004 as members!

The same course as outlined before concerning full employment in a competitive European Union will be followed.

Within the field of environment a strategy for sustainable development was adopted. This means that the environment will become as important as the economic and social issues in the future. The strategy will concentrate on four themes: climate, transport, public health and natural resources.

There are obviously clear links between the outcome of the European Council in Gothenburg and this meeting.

But as I said before, this meeting is important from other aspects as well.

One of these aspects is that it's often said that the European Union is a closed - too closed - entity. This initiative to broaden the dialogue on Regional planning and Regional Development shows clearly otherwise. The importance of a continuous dialogue between nations and within different fields of the society cannot be underestimated. This meeting, and the processes that hopefully will follow, will provide one arena for such a dialogue.

A second aspect why this is important is that we have much to learn from each other in this vast geographical area, with a clear north/south dimension as well as an east/west dimension. We have different backgrounds, different conditions to cope with and different solutions to similar problems. I believe that we have much to learn from each other.

The third aspect, and now we are within the field that I am responsible for in the Swedish Government, namely Regional Development and Regional Growth, is that we all have challenges within this field; regionally, nationally, within the European Union and in other areas. I do think that there is at least one aspect that we can agree upon - that Regional development has never benefited from borders.

This is clearly a basis for the European Union when launching, maintaining and strengthening the Community initiative INTERREG.

I think that there is only one way to proceed in the future - and that is to strengthen this co-operation. To take on even more demanding issues and to widen the co-operation geographically. To be able to do that we need a political dialogue between the nations concerned to - so to speak - settle the ground for a more concrete co-operation at other levels. A dialogue not only for EU Member States but for all Neighboring countries.

I have already mentioned that the Swedish Presidency of the European Union has three priorities: The Enlargement, the Employment and the Environment.

The reason for mentioning this once again is that there are clear links to this meeting as the overarching aim for an improved Regional Development is very much to make use of existing resources in a sustainable way in order to create economic growth and a higher degree of welfare for all in our countries!

This is the challenge!!

To a large extent the answer to that challenge is "Co-operation". However, this is not new - collaboration is already a fact at different levels and in different parts of this huge geographical area and this has contributed substantially to the overarching aims through recent years and must continue to do so.

The Council of Europe has a responsibility for the European continent as a whole. In different parts of this large area co-operation has been going on between groups of countries. These activities must also be taken into account when considering future co-operation from our perspective. Two such areas for co-operation are represented by: The Euromed Partnership Process in the Mediterranean area and the processes that have resulted in Visions and Strategies in the Baltic Sea Region (VASAB).

The Baltic Sea Region has been of great importance for the processes leading to both integration and development in that part of Europe. And I find it very important that the co-operation can maintain, and elaborate, its role as a forum for dialogue between the states around the Baltic Sea on issues affecting Regional Development.

In the same way I am certain that the efforts being made in the Mediterranean Area are of great significance for us in other parts of Europe. When saying this I do not just refer to the original task to establish a Free Trade Area in line with the Barcelona Process, but to the initiative to bring up the Spatial and Regional aspects in the process as well.

All ongoing processes in different parts of this huge geographical area are important for the future well-being of all of us. The ideas behind the co-operation and the policies guiding them have to a major extent been elaborated in the work that has lead up to the agreement between the EU Member States and the Commission on the report "European Spatial Development Perspectives".

But, it is important not to lean back and relax in satisfaction by the results achieved so far. We have to do more, learn more and try out more of co-operation. Things always change and we have to follow those changes also in the political discussions.

In this perspective the work that will be done within the "European Spatial Planning Observatory Network" (ESPON) is very important. We will hear more about that later today, but I hope that ESPON will provide the new knowledge that is vital to be able to make the right political decisions for the future development and future cohesion.

This is an important start that should be followed by other collaborative initiatives.

I would also like to say a few words about the discussion we now have started about the structural funds in the period after 2006.

The Commission has, by presenting the Second Report on Economic and Social Cohesion set the scene for such discussions - not least by bringing up the Territorial dimension as important for cohesion.

It is easy to detect that an increased responsibility for future cohesion probably will be put on activities founded on co-operation. This calls, in its turn, for an increased integration with other programmes supporting Regional Development.

It is obvious that the regions have to do most of the job leading to better integration and to Regional Development- but - there is a strong need for - in fact an obligation for the nations to provide the political framework - the policies - for such regional co-operation and activities. Therefore, there is a need for a forum where a dialogue between nations on these issues can take place.

It is my hope that this meeting will contribute to the efforts of creating such dialogues and such forum.

It is also important to define the themes that are essential to begin to discuss and to find the proper modes for co-operation. The enlargement of the Union is one of the most important questions that we have in the future. It´s about equal rights and opportunities for people and countries in Europe. It´s about peace and democracy. Those are questions for all of us.

Thank you!

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