"EU Missions are a new and vital instrument but without the active role of cities and regions their ambitious targets will not be reached. This requires integrating bottom-up activities with top-down measures." Markku Markkula, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) Rapporteur on 'European Missions' made these remarks during a SEDEC Commission meeting when presenting his opinion.
Markkula, who is President of the Helsinki Region said that cities and regions can play a crucial role in EU missions and the local/regional level is showing a strong interest. In fact, the first of the Mission calls was closed at the end of January and the result was impressive with 377 cities applying.
The former President of the CoR added that EU financing should be targeted for regions and cities especially since many regions face considerable difficulties to access funding with multiple calls and highly specialized criteria of Horizon research financing.
The opinion underlines the need for an effective system of multilevel governance that combines the EU Missions with local and regional development strategies, the COVID-19 recovery measures and innovation funding through the structural funds. With respect to governance Markkula said "Each EU Mission should define a clear roadmap and create a systemic new multi-governance approach and methodologies on experimenting, prototyping, monitoring, and scaling-up activities on all governance levels. Special attention is needed for creating portfolios of actions both at the EU and regional/local levels and disseminating these effectively in all phases of the planning and implementation;
Furthermore, the Rapporteur stresses that the EU Missions need to co-create new ways to operate and that this development requires all the actors to learn new competencies by integrating technology and research with a human-centric approach, committing to implement joint green and digital transformation processes.
What are EU Missions?
EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of Europe's greatest challenges. They have ambitious goals and will deliver concrete results by 2030. They will deliver impact by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens.
EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027. The 5 EU Missions are:
• Adaptation to Climate Change: support at least 150 European regions and communities to become climate resilient by 2030
• Cancer: working with Europe's Beating Cancer Plan to improve the lives of more than 3 million people by 2030 through prevention, cure and solutions to live longer and better
• Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030
• 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030
• A Soil Deal for Europe: 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030