Mrs Linda Gillham, EA group member in the EU 2020 Strategy Steering committee in the Committee of the Regions, has taken part in the workshop "Giving a territorial dimension to the European Semester to achieve the Europe 2020 goals" where participants discussed the ways territorial aspects can be integrated into the Economic Semester thus aligning it with the EU2020 Strategy goals and the investment policy required to revive economic growth.
Moreover, it is important to ensure a true mechanism of multilevel governance whereby subnational governments are fully involved in the definition of national reform programmes and the implementation of the EU2020 strategy. It was also highlighted that looking into setting territorially-differentiated contributions by cities and regions to member countries' targets, depending on their features, needs and capabilities could be developed.
Cllr Gillham, while drawing on her personal experience lamented that local authorities do not have a say on strategic choices although they are then responsible for their implementation and are mostly touched by their consequent effects.
