The Opinion stressed the need for coordinated action under
current policies. It also considered that the aim in the tourism sector
should be to help foster an economically, culturally and environmentally
sustainable development. In addition to business interests and tourists, a
third group also had to be catered for, namely the ordinary citizens who
lived in the areas frequented by tourists. There should be cooperation
between the authorities at the various levels in the Union:
Commission, Member States and regional and local authorities. The Committee
opposed any attempt to create a common European image, which would only serve
to submerge the individual and cultural identities that MemberStates
and regional authorities highlighted in their marketing. It called for
coordination of the Community’s general objectives for tourism and Structural
Fund aid. The Commission’s Green Paper could be construed as a step towards
giving tourism, an extremely important industry, the attention it deserved in
the EU’s political decision-making processes, and called on the Commission to
submit practical proposals as regards objectives and resources for the Union’s contribution to tourism. It urged the
Commission to base its report, to be submitted to the Council in conjunction
with the 1996 IGC, on the principles of partnership, complementarity and subsidiarity.
It believed that the proposals contained in section C III (strengthening
Community action via the existing Treaty…) constituted the soundest basis for
the Commission’s future work.