Carlos Mendez was an invited speaker at a conference on the future of EU Cohesion Policy, organised by COSLA (the representative association of Scottish local government) on 27 October 2011.
The morning session began with an overview of the Commission's proposals by Moray Gilland (DG REGIO), followed by a review of the underlying conceptual rationale and Member State reactions by Carlos Mendez. The views of the Scottish Government were then presented before a series of workshops on the draft General, ERDF, EARDF and ESF regulations with a wide range of local authority representatives across Scotland.
The conference marks the start of the process of strategic and operational reflection on the 2014-2020 programme period in Scotland and will inform COSLA's position on the future of Cohesion policy.