The first CoR plenary session of the year took place in the European Parliament’s Hemicycle between the 31^st January and the 1^st February. There was strong Irish Delegation engagement over the two-day session with the highlight being the adoption of Irish Delegation member Cllr. Kate Feeney’s opinion on “The SME Relief Package and the BEFIT Framework”.

The session opened with a tribute to Jacques Delors, the 8^th President of the European Commission, who died in December. Delors played a key role in the creation of the single market and Euro. From an Irish perspective, Delors was one of the first European representatives to react to the 1994 paramilitary ceasefire and it was at his urging that the EU’s Peace Programme was created.

The first debate of the day concerned the priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the EU, it also contained the first Irish Delegation contribution of the session as Cllr. Dan Boyle intervened to commend the Belgian Presidency for including urbanism as a presidency priority.

The next Irish contribution came from Cllr. Kieran McCarthy, speaking during the debate on the “Towards an integrated EU policy approach to support place-based innovation for the green and digital transition”. Cllr. McCarthy used his intervention to highlight the work of the CoR’s SEDEC Commission in promoting an integrated EU policy approach to support place-based innovation for the green and digital transition.

The evening saw the highlight of the plenary session from an Irish Delegation perspective as Cllr. Kate Feeney presented her opinion “The SME Relief Package and the BEFIT Framework”. During her presentation Cllr. Feeney urged Europe to embrace the “think-small-first” philosophy which her opinion embraced. Following interventions from the floor the opinion was adopted.

Day two of plenary began with an opinion on “Greening Freight Transport” followed by a “Debate on Lessons Learned from COP28: The Critical Role of Local and Regional Leaders for Global Climate Action” which saw Irish Delegation member and CoR COP28 delegation member Cllr. Alison Gilliland present to the plenary floor on her learnings from COP.

The plenary concluded with a debate with EU youth representatives on the forthcoming EU Elections and a presentation from CoR Trainees on their [Y] Factor project “Local and Regional Success Stories”.

The next plenary will take place in conjunction with the Summit of Cities and Regions in Mons on the 18^th and 19^th of March.