Committee of the Regions: cities and regions can be partners in EU’s neighbourhood
October 13, 2016
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The EU’s Committee of the Regions (CoR) has urged the European Union to focus more on cooperation with local and regional authorities in its neighbourhood, as well as on local projects and civil society, in an opinion adopted at its plenary session on 11 October.
The Committee of the Regions emphasised “the role of local and regional authorities in entrenching democracy and the rule of law in society” and stated that the EU should strengthen “the rights and responsibilities” of sub-national administrations, as well as making more funds available to them.
CoR rapporteur Anne Quart, who is State Secretary for Europe in the Land of Brandenburg, said: “We must increase the visibility of ENP, focus more on civil society activities at local and regional level, and ensure that there is sufficient funding. For this to be more successful, the EU should draw more on the experiences of cities and regions, which, together with civil society, can give important pointers and share knowledge about how social and economic cohesion, and democratic systems and the rule of law, can be promoted at local and regional level.”
The CoR calls for an increased focus on job creation and “promoting social rights”, and identifies young people and women as “essential” to the development of countries in the EU’s neighbourhood. It stresses the need for the EU to encourage more personal contacts, including through town twinning and an expansion of the EU’s Erasmus programme for students. It argues that that EU’s newly announced External Investment Plan should “tackle the root causes of migration” and that European regional and local authorities should be involved from “the very beginning in this process”.
The opinion also highlights that the EU should help its neighbours develop energy infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, diversify their sources of energy, and encourage action to limit climate change. The CoR is urging local and regional authorities in the EU’s southern and eastern neighbourhood to join the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, a voluntary bottom-up initiative in which cities and regions agree to go beyond the EU’s climate targets in exchange for technical support from the EU and eased access to EU funding. (EU Neighbours East Info)