Launching the New EU Alpine Strategy in Milan - Main contents
On Monday I joined high-level political and civil society representatives in Milan to kick-off the conference on the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region. Seven countries are involved in the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland.
We kicked off the day with a meeting with Secretary of State Benedetto Della Vedova, with President of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Maroni, and with Director Lena Andersson Pench (of DG REGIO). We met in Mr Maroni's office, at the topmost floor of the Palazzo Lombardia, overlooking the entire region.
In my remarks at the opening session of the conference that kicked-off the EU Strategy for the Alpine region (EUSALP), I stressed the importance of political commitment of national and regional partners involved in the Alpine Strategy to tackle common challenges with help of regional funding.
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I was delighted to see that the conference was so well visited. More than 1,000 participants met to discuss a common framework for jointly addressing the common challenges and concerns (trade flows, ecosystems, pollution) and at the same time the common opportunities offered by the region.
As European Commissioner, I plead in favour of strong regional integration, as far as we can go. But in everything we do, we must first listen to what the stakeholders have to say. And that is why I was so please that all the relevant stakeholders of the Alpine macro-region (and in particular the Presidents of the regions) were Monday and Tuesday in Milan.
Because, irrespective of how much expertise we may have in Brussels or in national capitals, local experts and stakeholders will always know better than us the situation on the ground. We will never know SMEs, as well as SMEs associations do. We will never know the Alpine Region, better than the people who live in, work in and grow in the Alpine region.
That's why we absolutely needed their input. And this conference was an ideal occasion for us to get this input from them.
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I want to warmly thank the Italian Presidency of the Council and the President of the Lombardia Region, our gracious hosts in Milan, and all our partners who made this effort worthwhile. A special thanks to my colleagues in DG REGIO who pulled off yet another succesful event!
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