Thursday, 23 June 2011 - Brussels

Explanations of vote:

Rapport Oldřich Vlasák

Pino Arlacchi (S&D ), in writing . − Mr. President, the report on the "European Urban Agenda and its Future in Cohesion Policy" stresses the fact that, further to the significant contribution of cohesion policy interventions to the development of urban areas, a range of other EU policies (such as environment, transport and energy) have a strong impact on urban development.

For this reason the Commission should proceed with a territorial impact assessment of sectorial policies to enhance an effective EU Urban Agenda. The report also underlines that one of the weaknesses of the Lisbon Strategy was the lack of well-functioning multi-level governance and the insufficient involvement of regional, local authorities and civil society in the design, implementation, communication and evaluation stages of the strategy. Taking this lack into account, it's imperative to improve the governance system for the EU2020 Strategy, with greater integration of stakeholders at all stages.

[source: www.europarl.europa.eu]