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On May, 24th Partenalia held its Political Council for the year 2018 in the headquarters of the Association located at a two-minute walking distance from the European Parliament.
The Presidents of the Diputación de Badajoz (Miguel Ángel Gallardo), Cáceres (María del Rosario Cordero Martín), Castellón (Javier Moliner Gargallo), Jaén (Francisco Reyes Martínez), Ourense (Manuel Baltar Blanco), of the Province de Hainaut (Serge Hustache) y los provincial deputies of Segovia (Jaime Pérez Esteban-Promoción Económica), Tarragona (Joan Josep Malràs y Pascual -proyectos europeos) y Valencia (Bartolomé Nofuentes López – Proyectos Europeos) were gathered to review the activities of the past year and to collectively determine what actions would be carried out throughout the year 2018.
The political representatives have thus started the Council by approving the 2017 Activity Report. The incumbent president and President of the Diputación de Castellón, Javier Moliner Gargallo has then proceeded to presenting the political overview of both his two-year mandates as Predident and highlighted the results which have been achieved during the past 4 years.
The main achievements have consisted in strengthening the network through two main focus:
- Increasing and stabilising the number of members and signing collaboration agreements with national associations of Local Intermediate Authorities from member States such as the UPI (Union of Italian Provinces) and the ADF (Assembly of French Departments).
- Raising the awareness of European institutions with regards to the crucial role of Local Intermediate Governments as the administrations that combine a global vision with a profound knowledge of territorial realities and which have demonstrated their capacity to efficiently manage the European funds they were granted.
The members have then analysed the candidacies submitted by the President of the Diputación de Ourense, José Manuel Baltar Blanco, the President of the Province de Hainaut, Serge Hustache and the President of the Diputación de Valencia, Jorge Rodríguez Gramage (represented by the provincial Deputy Bartolomé Nofuentes López) respectively at the positions of President and Vice-Presidents for the next two years.
The incoming President Baltar, in his inaugural speech, started by thanking the former managing team and by emphasizing his desire to consolidate its achievements and the new momentum The President then stressed what he sees as the relevance of Partenalia in this period of debate as to the role of Loal Intermediate Governments and to the future European policies and priorities which will be defined via the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
After the presentation and approval of both the Action Plan and the budget for the year 2018, the President opened the discussion on the role of Local Intermediate Governments in the future Cohesion Policy with the aim of bringing the Brussels Declaration adopted during the Political Council of last year up to date and of adopting a common position of the members of Partenalia on the recent proposal of the European Commission regarding the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
Finally, the members have unanimously decided that Partenalia will join the Cohesion Alliance which is the initiative of the Committee of the Regions to defend a strong Cohesion Policy in the next Multiannual Financial Framework following the individual decision of many members of the network to join the Alliance.
