Mr. Savvas Vergas, New Vice President of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities – 17/06/2011

The Executive Committee of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities proceeded to the filling of the post of the Vice President, which remained vacant after the proclamation of Mr. Christos Messis as MP in the recent parliamentary elections in Cyprus.

According to the statutes of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities, Mr. Savvas Vergas, Mayor of Paphos, who has held up to now the position of member of the Executive Committee, has been elected as the new Vice President of the Union. Moreover, the Executive Committee decided to propose Mr. Charalambos Pittas, Mayor of Morphou, for the position of member of the Delegation of Cyprus to the Committee of the Regions and Mr. Andreas Hadjiloizou, Mayor of Ayios Dhometios, as alternate member of the same Delegation.

This discussion focused on the CoR proposal that “Europe 2020” has to be implemented in each member state through a Territorial Pact, which is an agreement between a country’s various tiers of government (local, regional, national). Parties signing up to a Territorial Pact commit themselves to coordinate their policy agendas in order to focus their actions and financial resources on the “Europe 2020” Strategy goals and targets.

Ms Bresso, after presenting a summary of recent discussions gave the floor to Mr. Peter Gyorkos, Permanent Representative of Hungary and five other delegations, which referred to good practices in this area. Mr. Gyorkos stressed that through territorial pacts begins a new era for regional policy and the majority of delegations said that “Europe 2020” Strategy is intended not only to overcome the economic crisis but also to lay the foundations for sustainable growth.

Each EU Member Country has to submit its National Reform Programme for “Europe 2020” by the end of April 2011. The NRP will set the country’s national targets, how it will implement the flagship initiatives and act to remove bottlenecks preventing growth.