Regions and cities have a key role in defending the European project, reinforcing our democratic culture not to fall into simplistic and egoistic traps set by populists, who pour oil on troubled waters, writes Vasco Alves Cordeiro.
Vasco Alves Cordeiro is President of the European Committee of the Regions. The EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities, and its accompanying Regional and Local Barometer, will be published at the same time on the Committee of the Regions website.
Year after year, crisis after crisis, Europe is being put through one test after another where its unity is at stake. All these challenges have one thing in common: from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war against Ukraine, from the climate crisis to the energy transition, the only possible solutions are based on solidarity, cohesion and democracy.
Local and regional representatives know that and are well-placed to help to strengthen those values.
For more than seven months now, millions of people have fled Ukraine following the brutal and unprovoked invasion by Putin’s army. As Ukrainians arrived in our towns and regions, they were welcomed with open arms and offered the face of solidarity.
The task is unprecedented.
Think of the city of Warsaw that just in a few days had to host as many refugees as two entire European countries, Italy and France, combined.
On top of the challenge of providing shelter, jobs and education to so many newcomers, regions and cities also have to prepare themselves for a harsh winter, with skyrocketing energy prices falling on people, businesses and public administrations. Local mayors and regional leaders have to put in place measures that will save millions of cubic meters of gas, among other challenging tasks directed to serve and protect the citizens they represent.
Despite this, solidarity remains the driving force of local and regional leaders. As part of the 2022 EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities, the Regional and Local Barometer – conducted by the European Committee of the Regions – shows that 1 out of 2 respondents say that the most effective way to rebuild Ukraine will be to involve EU regions and cities in the plans for reconstruction.
City-to-city, region-to-region cooperation existed before the war started, but now it needs to be reinforced.
It is with this spirit that in June the Committee of the Regions has already launched the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine which brings together several European associations.
“Europe as a task” is the motto of the current Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, a motto regions and cities are committed to in their daily initiatives to show solidarity and resolve.
Having to deal with the immediate consequences of the war could make us forget the long-term challenges we need to tackle. For almost four years now, we had to face a pandemic with dire consequences on our social fabric and economies. Already then, local and regional authorities were the first responders.
While the EU and its member states were designing historical recovery plans, they should have taken inspiration from the decades-old successful cohesion policy which helped to maintain social, economic and territorial cohesion within the European Union, by involving regions and cities.
Only 1% of surveyed local and regional leaders have been involved in the development of the Recovery and Resilience Plans. Such an over-centralised approach risks widening the territorial divide across Europe and misses the ambitious targets to achieve green and digital transitions.
From shifting to the right energy mix to strengthening our health systems, from supporting our small and medium-sized enterprises to greening transports and housing, we need EU, national, regional and local leaders to cooperate more and respond more effectively to the wide variety of territorial challenges. To do this, we can rely on the unique experience of the EU’s cohesion policy, bringing together every level of government to reduce disparities across Europe.
In the past, cohesion funding has made measurable improvements to the standards of living of people. Looking into the future, but bearing in mind the extreme natural disasters we have been facing more frequently, modernising cohesion policy also in order to fight the climate crisis is a way forward, as one out of two local and regional representatives consider that the key objectives of EU funding should to support the green transition.
The same can be applied to the digitalisation of our societies where cohesion will need to be ensured.
As inequalities keep rising and with millions of people, especially children, at risk of poverty nowadays in Europe, no efforts shall be spared to uphold our social contract, notably through the implementation of the Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights, centred on lifting people out of poverty, training them and supporting their access to the labour market.
A strong partnership at the regional and local levels will be crucial to be successful.
With solidarity and cohesion being the driving forces to face today’s crises in Europe, there is one fundamental practice which cannot be ignored: democracy.
Thirty years ago, as the Maastricht Treaty – which established the European Committee of the Regions and enshrined the principle of subsidiarity – was being signed, Jacques Delors, then President of the European Commission, encouraged us to think not only about “what to do” but “how to do it”.
Today, the EU has been through a new democratic experience with the Conference on the Future of Europe, which called notably for more participation of citizens in European policy-making, especially of young people and women, but also for an enhanced role of the Committee of the Regions, as local politics are often the most trusted levels of government.
The Committee of the Regions has been calling for a permanent dialogue with citizens and now our Regional and Local Barometer shows that almost nine out of ten local and regional representatives call for having more influence on the future of the European Union.
Regions and cities have also a key role in defending the European project, reinforcing our democratic culture not to fall into simplistic and egoistic traps set by populists, who pour oil on troubled waters.
We call on the political will of all leaders in Europe to stand for our democratic values and prepare the work ahead of the next European elections and for a European Convention which should involve the voices of regions and cities across Europe.
Maintaining solidarity, cohesion and democracy in Europe is a moral duty and it starts in every village, town, city, province and region. This is what we have always done. Recognising this is not only about cities and regions. It’s mainly about the European Union.
Source: euractiv.com
