An interesting article in the Autumn 2012 edition of ‘panorama’ captured our attention here at the RSA blog. Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission from 1985-1995, reflects upon cohesion policy during this time – and more recently – and makes some interesting comments in relation to the current financial predicament much of Europe finds itself in. One interesting quote in particular:
“The level of divergence of economic development in certain regions was always the reality we faced and cohesion policy was designed to enable the underdeveloped regions to withstand competition and at the same time contribute something to Europe. All the proposals we developed followed my overriding triptych principles of: “Competition, cooperation and solidarity”. You cannot remove one of those elements and successfully build Europe.”
Also in this edition of panorama is a reminder about Open Days, the event for the European week of cities and regions, which we’ve blogged about before. This is held in Brussels annually (now in its 10th year) and this year it will be held from 8-11 October. For the tech-savvy, there is even an Open Days app for Android and iOS devices – we installed it on one of our devices… See below.
