On Wednesday 29 June, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) elected by acclamation Vasco Alves Cordeiro (PES, Portugal) as the new president of this European body for a two-and-a-half-year term.
He replaces Apóstolos Tzitzikóstas, Governor of Central Macedonia in Greece, who is appointed as the new CoR First Vice-President (see EUROPE 12949/24).
Elected to the regional parliament of the Azores, Mr Cordeiro will lead the assembly of regional and local representatives of the EU with the main tasks of strengthening democracy, defending cohesion policy, achieving the objectives of the EU Green Deal and improving regional support to Ukraine.
Addressing the 329 CoR members, Vasco Alves Cordeiro said that “responding to the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe is a challenge”. It is not possible to invite citizens to participate politically in this exercise of democracy and then consider “that anything that might involve treaty change is a taboo subject”, he said.
“The dilution of cohesion policy in the future post-2027 multiannual financial framework is a risk that should not be overlooked”, Mr Cordeiro added. He is the second Portuguese person to head an EU body/institution, after José Manuel Durão Barroso’s two terms at the head of the European Commission, and the first Portuguese president of the CoR. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)