The European Committee of the Regions (CoR)’s ‘Green Deal Going Local Working Group’ met for the first time in its new 2025-2030 mandate on Tuesday 3 June.
With a new ‘roadmap’ focusing on the contribution of territories to the Clean Industrial Deal (see EUROPE 13588/1), the group chaired by Markku Markkula (EPP, Finnish) is determined to make cities and regions levers for industrial and climate change.
Its ‘roadmap’ identifies a series of priorities, including improving multi-level governance, giving local authorities direct access to European funding, providing greater support for green innovation in SMEs and integrating the role of universities and regional research centres in sustainable industrial chains.
Discussions with representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Internal Market, Industry and Entrepreneurship (DG GROW) and Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and the CoR’s rapporteur, William Elofsson (EPP, Swedish), on the Clean Industrial Deal converged on the urgent need to ensure a level playing field for industrial regions in terms of energy costs, through a stable and predictable investment framework.
The working group therefore calls for the future post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework to strengthen the role of territories in industrial transition. Concrete proposals for the European Week of Regions and Cities will be presented on 15 October.
To see the ‘roadmap’: https://aeur.eu/f/h83 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)