COMMISSION HOLDS FIRST STRUCTURED DIALOGUE WITH EUROPEAN REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES.

On May 10, officials from the European Commission, Committee of the Regions and a series of local and regional authority associations met for one hour in Brussels under the guidance of Commission President Romano Prodi. This is the first meeting organised within a "structured political dialogue" framework, set up by a Commission Communication adopted in December 2003 (COM(2003)811). The principle is to arrange meetings between members of the European Commission and regional officials via European associations and the EU Committee of the Regions. As Romano Prodi said during this first meeting, the aim is not obtain their opinions on specific legislative initiatives - as there...