István FINTA, Institute of Regional Studies, CERS, Hungary
Balázs BRUCKER, Institute of Regional Studies, CERS, Hungary
Development policy at EU level can play an important role in tackling the negative features of peripheral areas. Therefore, it is far from indifferent what opportunities there are for promoting the interests of rural, peripheral areas at EU level. This can also be examined on the basis of documents issued by various bodies at EU level. The Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee play a particularly important role in shaping development policy, at least at the level of the various declarations.
The European Council, as the body of the leaders of the Member States, no longer seems as committed to partnership and multi-level governance, as is shown in particular by the fact that it took the discussion on the Code of Conduct for Partnership off its agenda in 2013. The documents indicate that the Commission's role in ensuring consistent multi-level governance and partnership is difficult to assess. The fact is that the consultative bodies (CoR, EESC) have on several times called on the Commission to monitor the implementation of partnership and multi-level governance, but the Commission has not achieved any results that would be reflected in subsequent documents.
Perhaps one of the most important results and lessons to be learned from the analysis of the individual documents is the reference rates for rural (and therefore peripheral) and urban areas. The majority of documents are concerned with expectations, urban development and urban areas. All this means that – until 2018 – it was cities that were at the forefront of development policy at EU level.
The representation and lobbying power of the countryside at the EU level is therefore far from optimal.
Mots clés : peripheral regions|multilevel governance|partnership|EU development policy|rural areas
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