The members of the European Committee of the Regions met for the 140th plenary session to discuss various opinions including 9 EPP-led opinions.
Opinions adopted on Monday 12 October:
- Equivalent standards of living as a joint challenge for all leve ls of government in Europe - Rapporteur: Bernd Lange
"We have to give people the right tools wherever they live to avoid the situation where people are forced to leave places they have grown up in. Services such as broadband, connectivity, education and public transport must be accessible in all regions. I consider the idea of equal living conditions to be an essential part of European Cohesion Policy. The opinion should serve as a basis for coming debates on how European funding and legislation can jointly contribute to achieving this goal."
- An EU Health Emergency Mechanism - Rapporteur: Birgitta Sacrédeus
"The EU needs a mechanism in the field of health to coordinate efforts and support to deal effectively with health threats and crisis situations. I want to stress the importance of Local and Regional Authorities when responding to crises and emergencies as we are on the front line. We need to increase our resources for rescue capacity. The swift adoption of the budget is essential for the EU to deal with future emergencies."
- Demographic change: proposals on measuring and tackling its negative effects in the EU regions - Rapporteur: János Ádám Karácsony
"As the Regional Barometer shows, family planning is profoundly affected by COVID-19. Therefore, we need to launch immediate family friendly support actions in order to avoid the overall decline in the fertility rate."
- SME Strategy - Rapporteur: Eddy Van Hijum
"SMEs in sectors such as tourism, retail and manufacturing industries are heavily hit by the corona crisis. There is no recovery of the economy without recovery for SMEs. Regions can play a crucial part in making sure financial support and recovery measures are there for SMEs, as well as providing structural support towards the twin transitions for a Digital Europe and the Green Deal."
- A Reinforced Union Civil Protection Mechanism - Rapporteur: Alberto Cirio
"The opinion underlines the importance of involving European regions and local authorities when it comes to emergency response. We are always at the forefront when a serious emergency hits our territories, we know the effects and the duty to respond quickly and well. Our voice is of fundamental importance for planning and implementing emergency interventions. With my opinion I want to underline the importance of a concrete involvement of European states, regions and local authorities in defining the resilience objectives set at European level."
- Local Democracy Challenges in the Western Balkans - Rapporteur-General: Nikola Dobroslavić
"Liberating the Western Balkans from the state capture, at both national and local levels, would help strengthen the economy, democracy and greatly benefit the people living there. When setting the criteria to be applied to relations with the Western Balkans, the EU should take into account the reality at the national and local level and not only monitor formal fulfillment of the criteria. The European Commission, in close cooperation with the European Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament, should actively encourage efforts to tackle the problem of local state capture in the Western Balkans."
- A Strategy for Europe's Digital future and A Strategy for Data - Rapporteur: Mark Weinmeister
"Digitalisation must produce tangible benefits for people. People must be put at the centre when we speak of digitalisation. Local and regional authorities can play an important role in the practical implementation of the EU Digital Agenda, in particular within Smart Cities and Smart Regions."
Opinions adopted on Tuesday 13 October:
- The European Climate Pact - Rapporteur: Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski
The Climate Pact should strengthen the cooperation between the local and regional authorities and the EU institutions. We have to work together on all levels of government to tackle the challenges that we face. Secondly, it should be an umbrella for local climate partnerships and pacts across the EU to learn from each other. While direct funding is necessary to support projects implemented by cities and regions, the latter must not be penalised for the disregard of the rule of law by national governments.
- The REACT-EU package - Rapporteur: Mieczyslaw Struk (PL/EPP)
Rapporteur Mieczyslaw Struk confirms that thanks to REACT EU, cohesion policy will be better prepared to face the current and possible future crises. He notes, however, that the EUR 55 bn additional funds need to be distributed more evenly in 2021 and 2022 to ease the administrative burden at the end of the 2014-2020 programming period and underlines the need to strike a balance between fast disbursement of newly available resources and the need to avoid irregularities. He further welcomes the currently enhanced flexibility but also warns that a crisis can never justify the centralisation of cohesion policy. "Our regions and cities are the best level to take effective actions to deal with the negative consequences of crisis situations. Listening to the voice of local and regional communities and leaving competence at these decision-making levels has always worked well. We should therefore refrain from using this crisis to transfer funds from cohesion policy - managed in partnership with regions and cities - to other centrally managed instruments.