John Bachtler was the Rapporteur for an International Conference 'Future of the Cohesion Policy and Integrated Local Development' organised by the Czech Presidency of the European Union. Held at the Zofin Palace in Prague on 26-27 March 2009, the Conference brought together senior officials from the 27 EU Member States, as well as from EFTA and pre-accession countries, and from European institutions.
The Conference was opened by the Czech Minister for Regional Development, Mr Cyril Svoboda, and covered three themes: the experience and lessons learned from Cohesion Policy; the future of Cohesion policy after 2013; and the role of integrated local development in fostering cohesion.
At the end of each day, John Bachtler provided a review of the conference sessions, highlighting the main elements of the presentations and debate. He will present a paper on the outcome of the Conference to the Informal Meeting of Regional Policy Ministers being held on 22-24 April 2009 at Marianske Lazne.