A little later the plenary session hosted a visit from Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner responsible for regional policy, who had come to take part in a thematic debate on the situation and prospects for cohesion policy under the Europe 2020 strategy. Other key participants in the debate were, variously, Carmelo Cedrone (Italy, Employees’ Group), rapporteur of the Committee’s opinion on the future of cohesion policy, Etele Barath (Hungary, Various Interests’ Group), rapporteur of an exploratory opinion, requested by the Hungarian presidency, on the role and priorities of cohesion policy in the Europe 2020 strategy, and Mr Barath (again) and Mihai Manoliu (Romania, Employers’ Group), joint rapporteurs of the Committee’s opinion on the Danube Strategy. In his opening address Mr Hahn argued strongly for qualitative, and not just quantitative, growth.
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