Partenalia held its annual Steering Committee on March, 15th in the city of Badajoz in the premises of the provincial administration.
The President of the Diputación de Badajoz, Mr. Miguel Ángel Gallardo welcomed the representatives of the network’s members at the technical level gathered in the Extremaduran city to prepare the yearly Political Council of the association which will be held in Brussels on May, 25th.
Mr. Miguel Ángel Gallardo highlighted the crucial role of Partenalia in attracting the attention of European Institutions and raising the awareness of EU decision-makers as to the necessity of making sure that rural areas are not left behind in the European construction process and consequently that they adequately receive the European funds needed to ensure a balanced and inclusive territorial development.
In addition to the analysis of the network’s budget for the past and coming year as well as the planning of its activities (organisation of conferences, exchange of good practices among Local Intermediate Authorities, institutional meetings with partner organisations and EU organisms, defence of the role of Local Intermediate Authorities within the European administrative landscape…) for the year 2018, the members of Partenalia also analysed the candidacies to the positions of President and Vice-Presidents. Indeed, during this year’s Political Council, the members of Partenalia will vote to elect a new President and two Vice-Presidents marking the end of the second term of Mr. Javier Moliner Gargallo as President of the association.
The DIputación de Ourense, Province de Hainaut and Diputación de Valencia have thus presented their candidacy respectively to the Presidency and Vice-Presidencies of Partenalia. The present members then discussed the various proposals found in the candidacies and the optimal ways to implement these and to further the founding goals of Partenalia: cooperation amongst European Local Intermediate Authorities (LIAs) and the defence of LIAs as an essential level of government in the EU and an embodiment of the principle of Subsidiarity and of Multilevel Governance. The technical representatives of members have thus paved the way for the holding of the Political Council which gathers presidents of member administrations as the ultimate governing body of the association and which will discuss the activities of the year to come and consequently plan the implementation of the 2018 Action Plan.
