Last week, the European Commission endorsed the first national recovery and resilience plans with the CoR requesting the Council of the EU to greenlight national plans so Member states can deliver the first funds already in July. Members discussed today about the role of the Green Deal in the Resilience Recovery Facility.
Green Local Recovery
Discussing the role of the European Green Deal in the context of the Resilience Recovery Facility, Michael Murphy, Councillor of Tipperary County Council and ECON chair said that "green local recovery is essential. Local and regional authorities have key remits in the field of green transition. This is one of the reasons why the ECON Commission has strongly advocated for the involvement of regions and cities in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans. We have had a reasonably positive dialogue with the European Commission and a promising one in particular with the European Parliament on this matter. This has led to the obligation for Member states to report on the consultation of local and regional authorities to draft the NRRPs."
Regarding the role of the SDGs, Ricardo Rio, Mayor of Braga, outlined that "I would like to point your attention to the relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals in this debate on green local recovery. Even when the reference to the SDGs is present in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans, there is a striking predominance of economic goals, over environmental and social ones. This evidence goes against the green transition priority. The insufficient relevance attributed to the SDGs by the national plans, constitutes a missed opportunity to build a coherent and sustainable recovery. It also harms the implementation of the Green Deal."
CoR campaign on the European Green Deal
Members also had a debate about how local and regional authorities are the ones that implement Green Deal projects on the ground and awareness campaigns are essential in order to have the engagement of citizens.
Hanna Zdanowska, Mayor of Łódź said "I believe that the Green Communication Campaign of the Committee of the Regions will allow us not only to raise awareness among local authorities and give them a strong impulse to environmental activities, but also to familiarise the European Commission with the specifics and problems of our local authorities as regards climate transition. The Campaign’s success depends on the effectiveness of the two-way communication between EU institutions and local authorities. It is necessary to put much emphasis on ensuring a one-stop access, in all EU languages, to information, tools related to funding sources, competitions, good practices or recommended solutions."
Markku Markkula, Chair of the Espoo City Board and President of Helsinki Region highlighted that "Mobilising activities driven by cities and regions is the only way to reach the EU Green Deal targets. The EU focus needs to be at the local level. Our experiences in Espoo City and Helsinki Region in Finland show the crucial importance of integrated public-private investments and other joint measures. I call for more regional climate roadmaps and Green Deal Going Local action plans. The CoR campaign accelerates European-wide local commitments to learn how to become change-makers."