The regions welcomed the announcements made on Wednesday 16 September by Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, particularly her stated desire to help rural areas. However, a number of them expressed disappointment at the absence of cohesion policy and local and regional authorities from her speech.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) did not release a press release to communicate its reaction to the speech. However, its president, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, responded on his Twitter account, where he welcomed the President's objectives and emphasised the key role of local and regional authorities in achieving them, and mentioned economic recovery and the dual digital and green transition.
Tzitzikostas tweeted that “#ClimateNeutralEU will be achieved if the EU empowers & invests in every region/city”, particularly in improving energy efficiency and transport. He went on to stress the key role of the Just Transition Fund (see separate news item), cohesion policy and the post-pandemic Recovery Fund.
The president of the CoR will deliver a State of the Union address on 12 October, in the presence of the President of the European Commission. The first barometer of regions and cities, focusing on the impact of Covid-19, will be presented on the same day.
The regions, ignored again
When she was contacted by EUROPE, Eleni Marianou, Secretary General of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) welcomed the measures announced by the President, many of which are concrete and targeted, but would have liked the President to mention the pivotal role that the regions and cities have played and will play in the fight against the pandemic and in the Recovery Plan. “The regions are key active partners in all of the policy areas she mentioned”, she said, and noted that the new President has a tendency to propose centralised solutions at Member State level when dealing with post-Covid-19 recovery.
In a similar vein, another source noted that there was no mention of cohesion policy, despite the fact that it was the only policy to respond immediately to the health emergency, rapidly releasing billions of euros through the CRII and CRII+ Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives.
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) said something very similar on the same day, publishing a newspaper editorial calling for a strong partnership between all levels of government to avoid “the mistakes of the past” by neglecting local and regional authorities. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)