​Mr Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Member of the National Assembly for Wales, after today's meeting of the Ad-hoc BUDG commission of the CoR said that it is important in the future that the European Commission adopts its draft annual budget earlier in the year in order to enable the CoR to give its opinion before Council position is decided. The 2015 budget has a substantial role to play in consolidating the economic upturn. He also called for the Member States to increase cooperation and to coordinate their action with local and regional authorities when preparing operational programmes in order to ensure optimal speed and quality for the implementation of EU funds and to minimise the burden for beneficiaries.