On 20 September 2012, Carlos Mendez was a speaker at the annual conference of the Industrial Communities Alliance, a local authority association campaigning on economic, social and environmental regeneration on behalf of councils in the industrial areas of England, Scotland and Wales.
The session on the future of EU Funding was opened by Agnes Lindemans (Head of Unit for UK at DG Regio, European Commission), who provided an overview of the Commission's Cohesion policy reform proposals.
Carlos' presentation focused on the likely outcome of the legislative negotiations underway in the Council of Ministers on the basis of Member State reactions and compromise proposals.
A UK perspective was provided by Sue Baxter (UK Director of EU Programmes at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), including an overview of the strategic thinking underway for the future programmes, while Shane Rankin (Head of European Structural Funds, Scottish Government) provided a Scottish perspective on the future of Cohesion policy.
The presentations were followed by a question and answer session with councillors, local authority officers, civil servants, regeneration agencies, and representatives from the voluntary sector.