During its 15th Congress in Athens, Greece, June 17 – 18, 2004, the Association of Business Organizations of European Capital Cities (OPCE) had a serious discussion about the consequences of the EU-enlargement and especially the future of the European structural funds. As a result the OPCE adopted this resolution about the role of capital cities in the European cohesion policy after 2006.

The OPCE is the Association of Business Organizations of European Capital Cities, that actually counts 15 members from all over Europe. The main request of the OPCE is to represent the interests of capital cities towards the institutions of the EU and the national and regional governments.

On 18th February 2004 the European Commission presented the third Report on economic and social cohesion, which sets out its vision for cohesion policy in an enlarged Union for the period 2007 – 2013 and kick-off the discussion on the future of this major policy area.

Participating in this discussion the OPCE strongly appeal to the European Commission for taking the fundamental importance of metropolitan areas for the economic development of the European Union as a whole into consideration.

As the OPCE already described in its resolution regarding the Capital Cities/ Regions of Europe (“Make the Growth Engines work!”) of May 2003 most of the metropolitan areas in the EU are the growth engines of their surrounding regions and of their countries. They help to lift other regions to a higher economic level and help through this the EU to reach the goals of the Lisbon process – making Europe the most competitive region of the world.

Besides to this function furthermore it has to be realised that metropolitan areas and capital cities offer highly sophisticated services for their surrounding regions, provinces and for their countries. This includes for example institutions for higher education, medical services, public utilities, administration, financial and legal services, research and development as well as logistics etc.

The employers and business organizations of the European Capital Cities strongly demand that

- the European Union takes note of the important role of Capital Cities and metropolitan areas for the economic development of regions within the European Union and the European Union itself

- Capital Cities and metropolitan areas will be defined as "regions" within the framework of European Union Policies

- specific programs within the structural funds will be targeted to metropolitan areas to safeguard a balanced economic and social development both within metropolitan areas and their surrounding regions.

Taking note of the specific functions metropolitan areas play within the European Union and the importance, metropolitan areas have as a "growth engine" on the one hand and in the process of fulfilling the Lisbon Process on the other hand, the business organizations of European Capital Cities underline, that the goal of the structural and cohesion policy of the European Union - competitiveness, accessibility and regional integration, can only be achieved if metropolitan areas and Capital Cities become targets for those policies.

The OPCE therefore call the European Commission and all national and regional governments for taking the important role of metropolitan areas into consideration in their discussions and negotiations about the future European structural and cohesion policy after 2006.

Employers and business peoples organizations of the following European capitals are members of the OPCE:

Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Sofia, Stockholm, Valletta, Vienna, Warsaw.