Minister Delegate Negrescu: Brussels must listen more to voice of local public authorities

European instruments do not sufficiently support local authorities and SMEs, and the representatives of the member states participating in the Brussels decision-making process must listen more to the voice of the local public authorities, Minister Delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu told a Friday's specialist conference. 

"Local public authorities in Romania and especially municipalities are able to participate in the European decision-making process. Romania has a greater responsibility at European level, especially in the current context and especially in the context in which, after the exit of Great Britain from the European Union, our country will become the sixth-largest state at the European level. If we want a strong Europe, we definitely want a constructive dialogue with the representatives of the local and regional authorities (...) In the perspective of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, we aim to be ambitious in building this relationship between the Council of the European Union and the European Committee of the Regions. Local authorities are the ones who understand the best local needs, where investments should be carried out and where there is potential. At present, European instruments may not sufficiently support local authorities, in this sense. They unfortunately do not even support SMEs. The support for SMEs must be highly focused on the digital component. At the beginning of 2017 there were 4,000 innovative enterprises in Romania, but only half of them were involved in clusters. The general idea is that the representatives of the member states participating in the Brussels decision-making process must listen more to the voice of the local public authorities and we must have a solid partnership between the Council of the European Union and the European Committee of the Regions," Negrescu said. 

According to the minister, in view of Romania's taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2019, the list of priorities of the authorities in Bucharest includes an important pillar focused on the economic and social part, which refers to competitiveness. 

The European Committee of the Regions and the Romanian Association of Municipalities is organizing on Friday, in Bucharest, a conference on "Increasing the competitiveness of SMEs through digitization - challenges for regional and local authorities".