Council of European Municipalities and Regions

LOCAL INSIGHT
Local and regional governments' view
on European affairs

As part of CEMR’s 70th anniversary celebrations, influential politicians and up-and-coming young leaders joined us to share their thoughts on the future of Europe and local government in a time of transformation. Among these were the European commissioner for environment, Virgijnius Sinkevičius, and Bulgarian MEP Eva Maydell. Both were decidedly optimistic on local governments’ ability to lead the environmental and digital transitions to make Europe more sustainable and cohesive.

The EU is keen to work with cities

Commissioner Sinkevičius highlighted that our societies have learned to radically change their ways of living and working as a reaction to the COVID pandemic. He stressed that cities are in an excellent position to pioneer new changes which do not simply react but practively move towards a more sustainable way of life.
 

On 26 January 2021, the first EU Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, met with local leaders of the CEMR Standing Committee for Equality to discuss the potential for local and regional action to build equality from the ground up and to identify areas for multi-level cooperation.

Commissioner Dalli presented the main areas her team is working on, particularly the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on women’s involvement in the labour market, their social and economic vulnerability and tackling the “shadow pandemic” of violence against women. The Commissioner also stressed that the pandemic reminds us that home is not a safe space for everyone.
 

Why local and regional governments should have their say in the future national recovery plans post-covid-19? To what extend towns and regions and their national associations were involved in preparing national plans for the relaunch post-covid-19?

To answer these questions the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) carried out a consultation of associations of local and regional authorities. This is only the start of a monitoring process to ensure the right involvement of towns, cities and regions and their associations in the recovery plans: are they involved in the design, programming, implementation, monitoring phases?
 

The EU’s new financing instrument for international development includes mandatory consultations of towns, regions and their associations in the elaboration of EU development programmes. It also dedicates a minimum of €500 million for towns and regions in partner countries.

With the “Neighbourhood Development International Cooperation Instrument” (NDICI), the EU’s development policy will be entering a new phase in 2021: this unique financial mechanism will cover the funding of all activities implemented under the EU’s neighbourhood, development and international cooperation policies.

Mid-December, the European Parliament negotiators – rapporteurs Charles Goerens, Michael Gahler, Maria Arena and Rasa Jukneviciene, led by DEVE Committee Chair Tomas Tobé, and AFET Committee Chair David McAlister – met with the representative of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU and the Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen for a last trilogue tackling the remaining politically sensitive issues.