Strasbourg, 1^st July 2010                                                                 CDLR-Bu(2010)20

Item 15 of the agenda

                                                                                                                         

BUREAU OF THE

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

SETTING UP OF WORKING GROUP FOR THE PREPARATION

OF A CONFERENCE ON TRANSFRONTIER COOPERATION

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs

Directorate of Democratic Institutions

This document is public. It will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy.

Ce document est public. Il ne sera pas distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire.

Introduction

At the close of the 16^th session of the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government (Utrecht, 16-17 November 2009), the chair of the conference announced the intention of the Netherlands to host a conference on the removal of obstacles to crossborder co-operation in the course of 2010.

At the meeting of the LR-IC committee (31 May-1 June 2010), the Dutch delegation confirmed its interest for the organisation of such event and submitted a paper highlighting a number of issues in the field of transfrontier co-operation that could be taken up also in the framework of the conference. The wish was also expressed that such a conference could be organised in collaboration with the forthcoming presidency of the European Union, namely Belgium.

The ensuing discussion showed that while delegations would welcome such  partnership, time was too short to do so as part of the Belgian EU presidency. For its part, the delegation of Hungary expressed itself in favour of joining forces with the Netherlands with a view to having this event in the first half of 2011, when Hungary will hold the EU presidency for the first time.

The proposal was accepted. Two members of the LR-IC were appointed rapporteurs on TFC issues including the preparation of the conference, Mr Edwin Lefebre (Belgium) and Ms Manuela Gonzalez Carloman (Spain).

The Committee extended an invitation for additional members of the committee to sit in a working party to prepare the conference and left it to the CDLR Bureau to agree on the final composition of the party in the light of the expressions of interest received.

As at 30 June, Mr Fabrizio Taschetta (Switzerland) and Mr Charles Ricq (Assembly of European Regions) also wished to join in the group.

Action required

The Bureau is invited to:

-         agree on the composition of the working party (Netherlands, Hungary, Mr Lefebre, Ms Gonzalez Carloman, Mr Taschetta, Mr Ricq);

-         instruct the working party to make proposals – and make suggestions as appropriate – as to the theme, format, organisation, time and venue of the conference with a view to enabling the plenary meeting of the CDLR in October 2010 to make the necessary decisions for the holding of the conference in the first half of 2011.