“The CoR's position is clear: solutions to the challenges facing Europe problems can only be found through a concerted effort by every level of government, including the local and regional level. I am therefore encouraged to hear President Van Rompuy confirm his commitment to this multi-level governance approach, as he did in Madrid last week at the meeting with José Manuel Barroso and José Luis Zapatero to mark the start of the Spanish EU Presidency. The CoR looks forward to contributing to the debate on both the short-term solution to the current economic crisis and the longer-term approach to developing sustainable jobs and growth through the proposed EU2020 programme,” said Van den Brande.

These issues will be discussed at two summits to be chaired by Van Rompuy later this year – an extraordinary meeting on 11 February will look at the current crisis and kick-start the debate on the EU2020 programme, the successor to the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs, and the main March European Council meeting which is expected to further develop the direction of the new strategy. Speaking earlier this month, Van Rompuy said that the EU clearly needed a new strategy if it is to achieve sustainable economic growth: “Several international organisations foresee economic growth of only 0.6% in the EU during the next few years, when we ought to be attaining more than twice or even three times that in order to finance our social model, our European way of life. The whole EU must be involved, not just the European institutions but also the member states, the governments and the regions as well as the social partners. It is a joint effort.”

As in previous years, the CoR is expected to contribute to the Council debate in a variety of ways. The CoR's opinion on the future of the growth and jobs strategy, drawn up by member Christine Chapman (UK/PES) and adopted in December 2009, and the opinion on the European Economic Recovery Plan, drafted by Dietmar Brockes (DE/ALDE) and adopted in April 2009, are expected to serve as inspiration for the CoR's contribution to   the heads of state and government which will  inform the summit debate. Two reports of surveys carried out by the Committee's Lisbon Monitoring Platform are also pertinent: the first sets out local and regional authorities' proposals for the post-Lisbon Strategy while the second , published this month, looks at the impact of the first year of the economic recovery plan at the local and regional level.

The two presidents also discussed the issue of climate change and the need for action following the disappointing results of the Copenhagen conference in December. Van den Brande stressed his desire to see a wider acknowledgement at the European level of the role of local and regional authorities in tackling global warming, and highlighted the increasing role of the Committee in the Covenant of Mayors, an EU-wide initiative to encourage mayors and other local and regional leaders to reduce emissions. He stressed in particular the recent agreement brokered by the Committee between the Covenant and its US equivalent, the Conference of Mayors, which will be formalised in the next few months and should lead to knowledge sharing and 'green twinning' between cities and regions on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Lisbon Treaty which came into force on 1 December 2009, created Van Rompuy's post of President of the European Council, but it also brought in a number of key changes of importance to the Committee of the Regions. For the first time, territorial cohesion is recognised as a principal objective of the EU – a change that the CoR lobbied hard for – while the Committee itself has been given new rights to defend the principle of subsidiarity, including the possibility to bring legal action before the European Court of Justice. "Now that the Lisbon Treaty is in place, it is time to stop the institutional naval-gazing of the last four years and to start afresh on the job of building a better Europe for all, one that is based on a multi-level government approach and that acknowledges the vital contribution of local and regional authorities," Van den Brande said.