Commissioner Corina Cretu: About 111 bn euro worth of allocations to EU urban areas between 2014 - 2020

Allocations to EU urban areas between 2014 and 2020 amount to approximately 111 billion euro, Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu on Friday told a press conference delivered jointly with Minister for Regional Development and Public Administration Vasile-Daniel Suciu, at the end of the informal meeting of the urban development ministers, organized by the Ministry for Regional Development and Public Administration in the context of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. "There is no unique recipe, and national and local authorities are in the position to decide how and where to invest in the future," said the European Commissioner. Corina Cretu added that she has adopted and supported "all the measures that result in urban development". "We put the EU citizens, regions and cities at the center of our concerns, and investments in cohesion policies provide cities and regions with the necessary support to meet the challenges," she said. "In the draft the European Commission submitted to the co-legislators, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, urban policy stays a priority beyond 2020 as well," Corina Cretu said. She also spoke of the proposal that "each member state be required, if the Council and the Parliament approve, to leave an amount as large as possible for the direct administration of the cities, because the cities should be more involved in decision-making, they should develop integrated urban strategies in order to meet the challenges." Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration Daniel Suciu referred to the Bucharest Declaration adopted at the end of the informal ministerial meeting, reminding that the document mentions the establishment of a joint commitment to create an EU-wide framework for urban development, but also reasserts political support for the Urban Agenda for the EU. The Bucharest Declaration also addresses the establishment of a short-term calendar for the continuation of the Urban Agenda.AGERPRES(RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Maria Voican)