On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), its 57th plenary session took place on 17 November 2004 in the Brussels seat of the European Parliament.
The plenary session was adjourned at 17. 45, in the moment when the 10th Anniversary of the Committee of the Regions started. The opening speech was delivered by the CoR President, Mr. Peter Straub, who declared that the Committee of the Regions is the most effective voice of the regions at the heart of Europe.
„The most fundamental on the European level is not to have more bureaucracy, but to focus our attention on the most important topics, which bring the citizens the real added value,” said in the following speech the former President of the European Commission Mr. Jacques Delores and added: „Let´s not base the European Union on the strong foreign policy, but base it on the understanding and help to the particular countries. We live in the diverged Europe, so let’s try to unite it. “
The centre-piece of the program was the roundtable debate on „Regions and Cities – pillars of the New Europe“. One of the nine invited speakers answering the questions of the plenary session with 500 participants was also Mr. Rudolf Bauer, President of the Kosice Self-Governing Region and the head of the CoR´s Slovak delegation, nominated to the debate as the only representative of the New Member State by the strongest European political group the European Peoples Party (EPP). Mr. Bauer answered the majority of the questions asked by the participants. The roundtable debate had other eight speakers e.g. Ms. Dora Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens, and the best-known regional politician and the President of Catalonia Mr. Pasqual Maragall I Mira.
The EU correspondent Hajo Friedrich of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the moderator of the debate, was the most interested in the accepting of the European Constitution and the decentralization process in Slovakia. Mr. Bauer answered that our country has made a big progress since 17th November 1989, which is the most significant in the more economical use of the public finance, beautification of the cities and the use of the pre-accession and afte-accession funds. At the end Mr. Bauer assured the attendees, that the countries, which became the new Members in May this year, are ready to prepare the projects and to use the financial means of the European Union effectively.
Text and photo: Lubomir Lehotsky
