European Parliament
Fatuzzo (PPE-DE ).
(IT)
I voted for the Mastorakis report, Mr President, because it is genuinely important and commendable for Europe, and therefore for Parliament too, to help the poorest regions to become wealthy regions, which, in turn, will thus be able to help the regions which are currently rich regions but will in the meantime have become poor.
I must point out, however, that it would be appropriate for Europe to define what a region is. We know, for example, that, in many countries of Central Europe – countries which will become European Union states as of 1 May – regions do not exist. There will be territorial boundaries marked on paper which are figurative, invented, not uniform
de facto
geographical realities. Therefore, greater consideration needs to be given to defining what a region is in Europe.

