John Bachtler was an invited speaker at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Regional Development hosted by the Czech Presidency of the EU in Marianske Lazne on 22-24 April 2009.
The aim of the informal meeting was to provide a forum for an exchange of views on the main principles and goals of a future cohesion policy and for a discussion on territorial cohesion as one of the policy's aspects, and to provide an opportunity for a presentation of the preliminary outputs of the public debate on the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion and for an exchange of ideas regarding the contents of territorial cohesion.
The meeting agreed a communique on the future objectives, coverage and focus of EU regional policy. John Bachtler made an introductory presentation on each of the two days of the meeting addressing respectively the future of EU regional policy and integrated local development. Further details on the meeting are here.