EPP-CoR members met in Gdansk and adopted the Gdansk Declaration calling for Adoption of the Gdańsk Declaration emphasising that the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) must meaningfully embrace multilevel governance and respond to tangible challenges faced by people, in order to truly achieve its objectives.
The declaration warns against populist attempts to undermine democratic values in the EU's regions, cities and villages, including the growing spread of online misinformation and hate speech. In this regard, it called for the participation of the regional and local levels in a coordinated EU strategy against foreign interference and misinformation.
The event was moderated by Jacek Bendykowski, President of the Gdańsk Foundation.
Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, Poland said "Innovation is a very important tool in the era of recovery and resilience. Through innovations we shall change, improve, invent, advance, re-imagine and use the challenges to go further, not simply to 'recover' or/and go back to the 'old normal'." She added that 3 universities in Gdansk have created a federation of universities, which will be the 3rd largest in Poland. "This will improve the quality of R&D in the city. "We do not need just formal tools, but also to help to create favourable conditions for innovation in the city."
Mieczysław Struk, President of Pomorskie Region, Poland said ""Today Europe finds itself confronted with tough challenges once again. The EU showed solidarity and exhibited unity. We continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainians, but we must face the crises arising from the situation. Access to Education is a big problem for Ukrainian children, with up to 200,000 at risk of being left out of the education system this year."
Olgierd Geblewicz, President of the EPP-CoR Group, President of West Pomerania Region, Poland said "Innovation is about competitiveness and economy. But is first and foremost about a vision for the future, about what will be there for the future generations in terms of jobs, education, political priorities. We still don't see it, but we can prepare the ecosystem for it to prosper and work for the European people of tomorrow. "
Addressing the event online was also Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv, Ukraine . He said " We want to rebuild our country and to join the #EU. This can only happen through close cooperation at all levels of government. As local/regional authorities we want to build bridges of cooperation with EU cities/regions in order to properly assist and support our communities."
During their stay in Gdansk, EPP-CoR members held an ecumenical service at Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to commemorate the former Mayor of Gdansk Paweł Adamowicz. Adamowicz paid the ultimate price for promoting tolerance. The CoR has since then created the Paweł Adamowicz for courage and excellence in the promotion of freedom, solidarity and equality. They also visited the the Exhibition on the history of Solidarność in the European Solidarity Centre.
The event can be watched here or see out Twitter feed.
Main takeaways from our speakers:
Siegfried Mureşan, Vice President of the EPP, Vice Chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, said "We have to stand up for Europe by strengthening our dialogue with citizens, our youth and by empowering local and regional levels voice within the European Institutions. The voice of our mayors needs to be heard as they speak on the behalf of our citizens."
Marcin Kierwiński, Secretary General of the Civic Platform said "Gdansk is the cradle of the freedom, but we are now in a very important moment in Polish history. The upcoming elections will determine which direction the country will take. The current national government does not like local/regional authorities, does not like EU and would like to centralise everything. The election will decide Poland's role in the EU. We must convince people across the country that the EU is key to our security and development.
Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw, Poland said "The Polish populist government breaking the rule of law leads to Poland being deprived of funding from the RRF. Hence it is difficult to innovate when there is no funding available. But despite this, we must not diminish our level of ambition on innovation and green transition."
Radim Sršeň, Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Czech Republic said "Innovations are not crucial just for cities, but also for rural areas, maybe even more rural areas to bring quality of life and diminish the rural-urban divide. At the same time, we need to bring Europe to the living rooms of rural people to persuade them about the importance of the European integration for their lives and the importance of them for united Europe."
Adam Struzik, President of Mazovia Region, Deputy Leader of the Polish People's Party, Poland said "The Education system has to flexible, and adjust to current needs. The pandemic accelerated processes e.g. making remote education possible. A considerable portion of cohesion funds has been put towards improving internet access and providing schools with proper software and computers, as well as training to facilitate this."
Rob Jonkman, Alderman of the municipality of Opsterland, the Netherlands said "The RRF is one of the best examples of European solidarity, but we need to ensure that the funds are used to the greatest benefit of European citizens, SMEs, decentralized governments and to build transformative projects in all Member States.
Arnoldas Abramavičius, Vice-minister of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania said "Democracy can't defend itself. Recent crises helped to form conspiracy theories, to form empty movements, to spread fake news. To deliver the right information, we have to mobilise our local society and include all levels of governance."
Jelena Drenjanin, EPP-CoR 1st Vice-President and Councillor in the Assembly of Huddinge, Sweden said " Citizens trust local authorities to effectively help those in need, as they have the knowledge and organisational capacities and have proved this time and time again. LRAs have pushed hard to allow Ukrainian refugees to access Swedish language courses on the same terms as Swedish citizens, and the national government has allowed this to happen. To not use the talent and knowledge that LRAs have is a waste of money and time. We must rethink how funds are directed towards local and regional levels, throughout the whole of the EU.
Edvardas Lukošius, Vice-Chairman of European Democrat Students said " Harnessing the potential of young generations means investing in their education, in their representation, and in their voices. It's about creating an environment where they feel empowered to step forward and take the reins of their future."
Emma Blain, member of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Ireland said " We have heard Ukraine's call. And we stand with them. Despite what they are going through, we have heard of their hopes."