Press release

370 delegates discuss common development strategies for the regions around the North Sea and the use of the North Sea Commission as a common voice for influencing the EU Commission and national governments.

The North Sea Commission – an organisation of regions in the countries bordering the North Sea – held on 18th-20th June 2003 its General Assembly in Cuxhaven. The North Sea Commission, which was established in 1989, has through the years gained increasing support from the regions and has been a common platform for influencing national as well as EU policies on a number of issues.

At a time when regional positions and their tasks are up for debate in many countries, it is of utmost importance that a strong common position and a common voice, such as through the North Sea Commission, can safeguard that regional positions are part of the decision process, when a number of important decisions are taken during the coming years, said Bent Hansen in his speech to the General Assembly.

“The European Convent has just publicised its proposals for the future structure of EU’s decision process and when the final decision is taken in the Ministerial Council, it is important that also the regions obtain a more formal and visible position in the European decision process. It is at the regional level that many of the European and National policies are implemented in our daily lives, and it is based on this that a Europe, in understanding with its citizens, should develop”, continued Bent Hansen.

During the North Sea Commission General Assembly, a political seminar was held on 18 June on the theme “European Regional Policy beyond 2006”. With Esben Poulsen from the EU Commission and David McAllister from the Parliament of Niedersachsen as speakers, over 70 regional politicians discussed the importance of retaining a European regional policy beyond 2006, where the current period for the structural funds runs out. This was one of the themes of Bent Hansen’s annual report, where he emphasized the increasing re-nationalisation of the European Regional Development Funds, as a threat to a continuing cross-regional and cross-national co-operation. The regions ought to be the cornerstone of any regional development policy, but a series of discussion papers unfortunately point in the opposite direction, said Bent Hansen, and encouraged the regions to work together in order to influence the decisions in this field during the coming years.

In his speech to the General Assembly, Hans Heinrich Sander, Minister of Environment in Niedersachsen, emphasized the importance of a regional co-operation, such as in the North Sea Commission. A growing number of regional planning tasks can only be solved optimally by having a cross regional co-operation, said Sander and pointed towards the many planned offshore wind mill parks, as one of many areas, where increased co-operation is necessary in the future.

The North Sea Commission has during the last year worked with offshore wind mill parks in several of its Thematic Groups, where a more integrated view on the establishment of wind mill parks has led to views of both environmental as well as business and fishery character. In connection with the North Sea Ministerial Conference in Bergen last year, the ministers decided to work towards some common criteria in connection with the planning and establishment of offshore windmill parks. As an observer at the North Sea Conference and OSPAR, the North Sea Commission will exert pressure on the ministers to live up to this decision.

With the support of 71 regions, the North Sea Commission will continue to influence the political debate and there is an important role for the North Sea Commission to play here, Bent Hansen finished off.

Pressrelease overview