Bairbre de Brún (GUE/NGL). ― (GA) Mr President, the two reports given today show the necessity of the cohesion policy and how that policy should be implemented. Balanced regional development is very important. The focus of Mr Guellec's report was on ensuring that regional funds are sufficient and that they will focus on promoting the needs of the citizens and the needs of the regions effectively. The only way to deal with a cohesion policy is as an implementation tool for the Lisbon Strategy. I would like to thank the Rapporteur.

Ireland has benefited a great deal from cohesion money and in order for other countries to benefit in the same way we must ensure that increased resources are directed at promoting regional development and tackling social exclusion. Not only must the gap between Member States be decreased but we must also decrease these gaps within Member States as well as the gaps between regions.

Mr Guellec reports on Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece's impressive growth rates between 2000 and 2006. He has highlighted, however, that in spite of this growth, there are great inequalities between regions within those countries.

I would like to thank Mrs Kallenbach as well for her report and I especially welcome the emphasis placed on strengthening the role of local urban authorities in order to make access to public services available to every citizen. There is a need for local empowerment, respect for the environment and a high standard of public services to be universally available so that the urban environment is an attractive place to live and work in.

Sustainable development is a huge challenge within urban areas in the 21st Century and the framework presented to us today by Mrs Kallenbach can help us to face this challenge.