Round Up of CoR’s 162nd Plenary
This plenary represented the penultimate session of the mandate and coincided with the European Week of Regions and Cities.
Beginning on Monday 7th October with President Vasco Alves Cordeiro presenting the State of Regions and Cities, the plenary featured a packed agenda of 11 opinions and 6 debates.
During the aforementioned debate on State of Regions and Cities, Irish Delegation member Cllr. Kieran McCarthy made his first intervention of the session highlighting the need for Europe to support its cities and regions. He noted that that this will lead to “a strong trust-filled partnership in multi-level governance”.
Following the debate on the State of Regions and Cities the first day of plenary adjourned.
Day two began with a debate on 20 years after the 2004 EU enlargement. The debate offered an opportunity to look back to the challenges faced by the ten countries who joined in 2004, highlighting lessons to be learned for the nine candidate countries. The debate underlined the importance of developing cohesion policy to ensure that any future growth of the Union does not create any financial disruption.
This was followed by the presentation and adoption of the plenary’s first two opinions, the “Mid-term Review of the Post-COVID European Recovery Plan” and “A Just Transition for all EU Regions”. Both opinions were adopted by members.
The second debate of the day centred on the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Working under the slogan ‘Make Europe Great Again’, János Bóka, Minister for European Union Affairs highlighted Hungary’s seven presidential priorities.
This was followed by the presentation and adoption of three opinions. Firstly Zdeněk Hřib’s “Creation of a common European Mobility Data Space”, secondly, Giuseppe Varacalli’s “Promotion of Roots Tourism for Sustainable Local Revitalisation” and finally, Ilpo Heltmoinen’s “Shock-proofing European Regions: Strengthening Local and Regional Economic Resilience in the Strategic Evolution of the Single Market”.
Speaking during the opinion on the promotion of roots tourism, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy highlighted the impact of the Gathering noting “The event managed to attract over 250,000 incremental tourists, that would not have travelled to Ireland but for the Gathering. Conservative estimates suggest this contributed at least €170 million to the Irish economy.
Ireland has built on the success of this roots tourism initiative to develop the Global Irish Festival Series. The series is more targeted, seeking to reconnect those with roots to Ireland’s west back home over the course of 2024.”
Following the adoption of the three opinions the plenary adjourned.
The final day began with Antje Grotheer’s opinion on a “Common Implementation Plan for the Pact on Migration and Asylum: the Local and Regional Perspective”. This opinion explores the Pact’s ten building blocks to facilitate practical implementation efforts. Concerning local and regional authorities’ responsibilities towards asylum-seekers, the opinion highlights that it is crucial to keep asylum-seekers well informed about their obligations and rights and have access to counselling and advice so that there are no misunderstandings with authorities and the population.
Following the adoption of Grotheer’s opinion the plenary also adopted Emil Boc’s “Ethical Intelligence and Access to Supercomputing for Start-ups”.
The plenary subsequently heard statements about recent extreme weather events and adopted three opinions. Firstly, “European Wind Power Action Plan”, secondly, “Demographic Change in Europe: a Toolbox for Action” and finally, “Reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships”.
Speaking during the debate on Reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships, Cllr. Mick Cahill highlighted Ireland’s support for the reinforced quality framework.
The Plenary concluded with a debate with the President of the European Investment Bank Nadia Calviño, the adoption of an urgent draft resolution on the State of Regions and Cities in the EU and finally adopting Anne Besnier’s opinion on the “Recommendations for the next Framework Programme (FP10) for Research and Innovation”.
The final plenary of the mandate will take place on 20th and 21st November.