The members of the Committee of the Regions elected by acclamation at its inaugural plenary session on Wednesday, 12 February, Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EPP) of Greece and Vasco Cordeiro (PES) of Portugal as President and Vice-President for the next 5 years, rotating between their posts during their term of office in accordance with current practice. They take over from the two outgoing presidents, Markku Markkula (EPP, Finland) and Karl-Heinz Lambertz (PES, Belgium).
At a press conference, the two men displayed a strong convergence of views and hammered home a series of messages: to make the European Union more democratic (even if it means reopening the treaties to give more weight to local and regional authorities), to fight against any further budget cuts in cohesion policy and to advocate a larger financial envelope for the next multiannual financial framework.
Here, the two men recalled that their countries would share a common specificity: Greece and Portugal would be the only two EU Member States to support a national contribution to the European budget of 1.3% of GNI, which is in line with the Committee's position.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the week, Renew Europe decided to withdraw its candidate (see EUROPE 12418/18) for the presidency of the Committee, leaving room for the two main political groups.
The Committee thus held its first constitutive session with a political profile somewhat modified by the departure of the British members, the Committee going from 350 to 329 members (see EUROPE 12259/27), but also by the creation of a new environmental group (see EUROPE 12418/18).
The distribution of seats between the groups is not yet final, as some incumbents are still missing, but the EPP, with 111 members, is expected to remain the largest group, closely followed by the PES (90), then Renew Europe (45), the ECR (25), the Greens/EFA (12), the European Alliance (11) and finally the Non-attached (11). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)