I include in my thanks the members of staff of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy who have worked very hard in this area.

The reservations about climate protection on the part of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy have prevented our amendments receiving majority support in committee.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for regional policy issued an invitation to tender for the programme at the end of July.

The Directorate-General for Regional Policy and Consular Affairs coordinates the diplomatic missions.

The fact that a word as symbolic as "cohesion" was removed from the Directorate-General for Regional Policy strikes me as rather unfortunate.

The Directorate-General for Regional Policy and my colleague, Commissioner Hahn, will provide advice and support in this regard.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy will be available to provide any support that may be required to help Portugal's authorities to prepare the application.

In paragraphs 12 and 16 of our report, we call for the creation of a specific cross-cutting administrative unit within the Directorate-General for Regional Policy to deal with islands.

He is married to Elisabeth Helander, Director of Community Initiatives and Innovative Actions of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy of the European Commission.

That is why, in close cooperation with the staff of the Commission' s Directorate-General for Regional Policy, we are currently working on developing a battery of performance indicators for loans for regional projects.

As a follow-up, in October 2003 an audit – carried out by the services of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy – confirmed the existence of serious deficiencies in the systems and the management process.

I would like to thank the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy and the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development for organising this event.

I should therefore like to support, in particular, the report's recommendation that an administrative unit, charged with defining and promoting a European strategy for the island regions, be set up within the Directorate-General for Regional Policy on the model of what already exists for the outermost regions.

Present and planned work, in particular the Directorate-General for Regional Policy's study, the results of the mid-term review of existing programmes and the conclusions of the Third Report on Economic and Social Cohesion will give us a more accurate picture of the situation and options for further action.

The departments within the Directorate-General for Regional Policy, in cooperation with those of Mr Potočnik, are working on a communication to provide information and advice on how to combine the resources of cohesion and RDT policy in order to increase their respective effectiveness, which is to be adopted in July.