Cohesion and the Lisbon Agenda: The Role of the Regions, Brussels, 3 March 2005

Some two weeks before the European Council met to review the Lisbon strategy of March 2000, Danuta Hübner, the Commissioner responsible for regional policy, invited more than 500 participants - among them the elected leaders of many EU regions, regional policy stakeholders and experts - to discuss how regions can make Lisbon work. The European Union's 254 regions have a key role to play in a new partnership for growth and employment as recently proposed by the Commission in its re-launch of the Lisbon strategy.

Europe's regions have much experience in promoting a more competitive economy. With the help of the EU's Structural and Cohesion Funds, regions are already working to achieve key aspects of the Lisbon agenda. This effort must be continued in future and it is with this in mind that, in 2004, the Commission brought forward proposals for the reform of regional and cohesion policy for the period 2007-2013.

For the future, a clearer focus is needed on contributing to growth and jobs. Greater ownership of the growth and employment agenda on the part of the EU regions means a better performance of the EU economy as a whole. In this respect, Lisbon needs the regions as much as the regions need Lisbon.