The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, says he wants to pledge to boost cooperation between the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Parliament and take part in the Citizens’ Dialogue on the future of Europe. He was speaking to enthusiastic MEPs at the opening of Parliament's plenary on Thursday 11 May.
The Citizens’ Dialogue entitled ‘Reflecting on Europe,’ piloted by the Committee of the Regions, aims to organise dialogues with citizens throughout the regions of Europe to understand their expectations from the European project. The initiative has grown in ambition following a letter from the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, asking he CoR to present a report on the future of the EU (see EUROPE 11646).
Parliament's president pointed out the primordial role played by local and regional elected officials in brining the European Union closer to its citizens. In this regard, he hailed the ‘Reflecting on Europe’ initiative and said he wanted to participate in a future event himself, following in the footsteps of a number of MEPs. The MEPs who have taken part in the initiate in Bulgaria thus far include Eva Maydell (EPP, Bulgaria) and Andrey Novakov (EPP, Bulgaria).
During his speech, Parliament's president said that he wanted to convene the CoR to an event held ahead of the European Summit on immigration on 22 and 23 June in order to increase the pressure on the member states.
Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany), who is CoR rapporteur on the future of the Cohesion Policy (see other article), welcomed the announcement. He told this newsletter that there was already good cooperation among the rapporteurs of the two institutions, but cooperation is virtually non-existent among the Conference of Presidents.
There has been a cooperation agreement since 2014 to optimise administrative resources and boost cooperation in the legislative process between the two institutions. Regular cooperation takes place between Parliament’s regional development committee (REGI) and the territorial cohesion and budget committee at the CoR (COTER). This recently has also included Parliament’s transport and tourism committee. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)