"In Madrid we fought against the pandemic mainly by safeguarding freedom and by reshaping public services. Responsibility and liberty are the way forward to fight against the consequences of the pandemic. Avoiding mass closure during the second wave helped to reduce mental health problems and unemployment. " Isabel Diaz Ayuso, President of the Region of Madrid made these remarks during a discussion on the 'Future models of territorial development' held as part of the 9th European Summit of Regions and Cities. Diaz Ayuso added that Madrid is one of the most competitive cities in the world and several people are moving in from abroad to live and work because of private and public cooperation. She spoke on the need of various measure including reducing taxes to improve the quality of life of citizens.
Magnus Berntsson, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) said that there is a real opportunity to build back in a sustainable manner ensuring a fair society. "This is only likely to be a success if we shift to a place based approach when shaping policies. Hence, we need to engage Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) in a meaningful manner and provide funding. We will thus continue to work with the Cohesion Alliance to come out from the crises with a place based recovery."
The role of cities and regions in recovery plans
During a debate on 'recovery plans', Michael Murphy, Chair of the CoR ECON Commission said that LRAs have found themselves in a perfect storm with rising expenditure and falling revenues, shown most recently by the Annual Barometer. He also expressed disappointment that LRAs were not meaningfully involved in the preparation of the national recovery and resilience plans. "The decision-making process was often top-down, and centralised. Consultations were mostly done as a box-ticking exercise."
Europe starts in rural areas
Daring a discussion on 'Rural Revival', Radim Sršeň, Mayor of the Municipality of Dolní Studénky said that the recipe for rural revival is a set of various measures. "Rural areas are not a museum. I try to persuade young people that rural areas are nice places to live in. We need to instill rural pride in small children. Europe starts in rural areas." He referred to connectivity works being done in his municipality which will open new possibilities for SMEs.
Franc Bogovič, MEP and co-chair of the Intergroup on Rural, Mountain and Remote Regions and on Smart Villages said that rural areas are not only about farming and forestry. "The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) alone is not going to solve all the challenges in rural areas. We also need to look into Cohesion and Horizon Europe." Bogovič added that the quality of life in rural areas can be boosted by investing in all kinds of infrastructure. He also referred to the energy sector stressing that there are renewable energy solutions for existing challenges."