EPP/CoR Plenary in Focus, June 2016

Plenary June 2016

Priorities of the EPP Group in the European Committee of the Regions

Steel industry needs investment and protection

The European Union should consider allowing members to subsidise their steel industries, which are suffering from a collapse in prices and carbon regulation, according to Elzbieta Bień kowska. As the European Commissioner in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, she has been following the developments in the sector, which employs

some 360,000 workers across the European Union, closely. She previously said that European steelmakers - which include ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp - were at the limits of what they could achieve through the modernization of production. The Commissioner will participate in a debate at the COR Plenary Session, ahead of the adoption of an own

initiative opinion. The opinion fits into the broader context of reshaping the EU’s industrial policy, which was the topic for debate at the 2014 EPP Group meeting in Badajoz. Helma Kuhn-Theis is convinced that it is the task of a responsible European policy to support the competitiveness of the steel industry. «The reform of foreign trade needs to be top priority. We need timely results to avert further damage to the steel industry. With a view on the future we also need to reach a viable solution to the conflicts in interests developed by the EU Emission Trading Scheme and maintain our steel industry competitive in global competition» she will underline during the debate. Christian Buchmann will also comment on behalf of the EPP Group.

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Food waste prevention is integral part of Circular Economy Package The European Commission published the results of the first Flash Eurobarometer survey on food waste and date marking in October last year, confirming that date marking («use by» and «best before») is poorly understood by Europeans. As a follow-up to these concerns and in view of the food waste objectives in the circular economy proposals, the European Commissioner in charge of Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, will attend the CoR Plenary Session. Speaking at the time of the Eurobarometer, Commissioner Andriukaitis said: “If we do nothing, food waste could rise to over 120 million tonnes by 2020.

In Europe alone, it accounts for estimated annual losses of €200 billion to the European economy. By working together to prevent food waste, we can save valuable

food resources, money and lower our environmental footprint.” This led mayors, city representatives and International Organizations, as well as CoR President Markku Markkula to sign the Urban Food Policy Pact in Milan. One year later, at a meeting of the COR’s NAT Commission, he added: «Regions and municipalities are

closest to our citizens, schools, cantinas, food businesses, restaurants and cafés.

Indeed these are the best places to work on prevention of food waste and promotion of best practices.» Mark Weinmeister and Róbert Szabó will respond on behalf of the EPP Group.

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OECD report outlines patterns and trends for EU regions Mari Kiviniemi, Deputy SecretaryGeneral of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will address the Plenary Session to outline the results of the 2016 edition of the OECD report «Regions at a glance». For the first time, the report will include well-being indicators and quality of life (beyond GDP), which will be debated as part of a wider discussion on addressing regional challenges in an integrated manner. Her intervention will also touch on demographic challenges, which are the topic of the opinion to be presented by Juan Vicente Herrera Campo, President of Castilla y León, as well as the EPP Group’s workshop at the European Week of Regions and Cities on 12 October. According to President Herrera

Campo, «Demographic change is one of the biggest challenges facing Europe’s regions and cities. Forecasts for 2060, point to an ageing Europe with big demographic disparities among its territories. These

issues will have a major economic, social, budgetary and environmental impact.»

Mieczysław Struk will respond on behalf of the EPP Group.

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Religion and belief in the fight against radicalisation

Ján Figel’

The EPP Group meeting on 15 June will be dedicated to discussions on the role of freedom of religion and belief as fundamental European value, and the current threats linked to growing radicalization and the quest for more and better security

following the recent terrorist attacks. Within this context, Ján Figel’ will be attending, in his capacity as the newly appointed Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU. He is expected to build on his belief that “mutual respect

and understanding in fast changing social environments are key building blocks for a more human world in the XXI Century”.

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Mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is of particular importance for local and regional authorities since they play a vital role in the implementation of European policy objectives being directly and indirectly involved in managing or spending 75% of the EU budget.

Luc Van den Brande, Chair of the Management Board of the FlandersEurope Liaison Agency, VLEVA, BE/EPP COTER-VI/014

Plenary

The MFF determines the priorities and scope of EU policies.

This is important for LRAs because regions and cities have to manage the direct and indirect impact of the EU’s financial actions, as beneficiaries of EU funds or through the implementation of the EU budget within its shared management. The rapporteur therefore considers the MFF to be first and foremost a policy tool for identifying European strategic targets. Keeping this

in mind, he calls for flexibility in the MFF and the annual budgets, in order to provide answers to unexpected events or new challenges. At the same time the CoR opinion asks for the introduction of new own resources in the next MFF, which would make gross national income-based contributions to the EU budget unnecessary. With reference to the economic situation, the rapporteur demands more attention to rural and local development, including the introduction of specific measures for sparsely-populated areas because investment there keeps the economic and social fabric alive and creates a proven multiplier effect by giving the regions a fundamental role in their management of investments.

Furthermore he proposes a

thorough analysis of the use of financial instruments and a simplification of procedures.

“

One of the most important challenges for the upcoming revision of the MFF will be the fight for simplification. We need it urgently, still in this perspective. I count on your support, support of the practitioners, in that respect. Let’s join our forces to make the life easier for thousands of beneficiaries across the whole EU as soon as possible.”

Jan Olbrycht, MEP

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Legislative proposals amending Waste Directives Given the notable success of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, a similar structure on waste management should be set up, increasing the efforts of local and regional authorities to boost resource efficiency, reduce waste and increase recycling, reuse and recovery of waste in cities even further.

Domenico Gambacorta, President of the Province of Avellino, IT/EPP ENVE-VI/010

On 2 December 2015, the European Commission presented a new, more ambitious circular economy package that aims to increase competitiveness, innovation, growth and new jobs; reduce pressures on the environment; and enhanced security of supply of raw materials. Upon this base, the rapporteur welcomes the harmonised definitions in the waste directives

proposals and calls on the European Commission to ensure that all the definitions are in line with the European Waste Catalogue. Furthermore he urges the co-legislators not to water down Extended Producer Responsibility requirements and to maintain key provisions such as those guaranteeing transparency as well as full coverage of costs by producers for local and regional authorities with regard to the collection, management and processing of waste streams, and public information. The rapporteur calls once again for further binding targets to be set for re-use and recommends to give priority to a qualitative approach eliminating landfilling of recyclable and biodegradable waste.

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Circular economy is addressing bottle necks of the European industry and society and turning these into a great potential. The availability of resources also at affordable prices becomes a vital question for Europe as we are a resource scare continent with enormous resource consumption. The waste package is one important step towards a circular economy. It aims at increasing the recycling and incentivises the reuse of our resources which would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators.”

Karl-Heinz Florenz, Member of the European Parliament ■

State of play of the EU response to the demographic challenge Experiences and demands from Europe’s cities and regions A future European strategy should give due consideration to the role of regional and local government in combating demographic change, promote mutual exchange of best practice and encourage approaches based on prevention and early intervention.

Juan Vicente Herrera Campo, President of the Regional Gouvernment of Castille and Leon, ES/EPP ECON-VI/009

Finding solutions to Europe’s demographic challenge is one of the CoR’s political priorities and one of the main concerns in the Europe 2020 strategy.

Keeping this in mind, the rapporteur highlights that regions and cities respond in various ways to demographic challenges. Moreover, key compe-

tences in areas like, employment, participation in society and independent living that should be used to develop appropriate responses. He regrets that despite the potential for many European policies to contribute to tackling demographic challenges, they do not contain specific measures to assist affected areas, such as transport, information society, employment and social policy, environment and climate, business. Hence he insists that demographic challenges are taken more into consideration in the future. The CoR opinion further calls for the EU’s cohesion policy to provide

specific instruments for areas that are most affected by demographic challenges, such as greater flexibility with regard to co-financing rates or choosing thematic objectives in order to give support for regions experiencing the most difficulties. By acknowledging the key role of many rural and sparsely populated areas in maintaining the rural environment, biodiversity and landscapes, the rapporteur recommends that the Europe 2020 strategy should be more attentive to local and regional demographic challenges by means of a flagship initiative on demographic ■ issues.

Europe Direct Information Centres help give positive attention to Europe “European actions need to be explained or they lose their legitimacy.” This was the starting point for Mark Weinmeister to put forward a resolution on the Europe Direct Centres (EDICs), which is expected to be adopted at Plenary on 16 June.

Explaining his reasoning further, he added “Strong decentralised public rela-

tions work on European policy, as conducted by the Europe Direct Information Centres, is of particular importance today. They are key instruments for the European Commission to inform citizens at the local and regional level about the importance the various European issues have for their daily lives and to create

positive attention for the issue of Europe.”

Building on a previous COR resolution, he would like to see continued support for the EDICS as well as closer synergies with the work of COR members.

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EU Enlargement Strategy The involvement of local and regional authorities (LRAs) is a key in communication regarding enlargement in order to ensure public support for the process by demonstrating its benefits for the general public.

Anna Magyar, Vice-President of County Council of Csongrád Megye, HU/EPP CIVEX-VI/008

The EU’s enlargement policy is an investment in peace, security and stability in Europe, by providing increased economic and trade opportunities to the mutual benefit of the EU and the aspiring Member States as well as by its general transformative effect on the countries concerned. In view of this, the rapporteur welcomes the Commission’s first overarching strategy and the possibility it offers for comparability in terms of consistent conditionality, clear methodology, harmonised terms and

a better identification of tasks.

The CoR opinion emphasises the visible progress in every enlargement country, but draws awareness to the fact that the enlargement process should be an inclusive exercise, involving all of society and that the involvement of the local and regional level is essential. With reference to financial aspects, the rapporteur calls for more effective and transparent use and allocation of EU pre-accession funds to avoid losing out on resources. Furthermore she highlights the need to counter radicalisation, extremism, terrorism and the issue of foreign fighters, calling upon local communities to support respective education. With the refugee crisis in mind, the rapporteur wants to encourage partnerships between

local communities along the migration route in order to exchange information and best practice, including issues such as integration, training, education and employment.

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A key precondition for the future enlargement is “tough love” - this is best both for the Union and the aspirant countries. “Friends of enlargement” within the EU know very well: enlargement can only happen on the basis of strict and fair criteria applied in a process of tough conditionality and subject to an enhanced verification procedure.”

Sandra Kalniete, Member of the European Parliament ■

EU Budget and European Commission’s Work Programme 2017

Two resolutions will be debated and adopted during the Plenary Session. The first, a resolution on the EU Budget 2017, emphasises the need for the EU budget

to contribute towards economic recovery and fill the still significant post-crisis investment gap in the EU. This gap is a worry to local and regional authorities because

it harms competitiveness and threatens economic, social and territorial cohesion.

The EPP Group insisted to highlight the significance of the European funding programmes and policies that stimulate the development of the EU economy and calls on the Commission to further increase investment in research, innovation and infrastructure. Moreover, the resolution underlines the necessity of providing LRA’s with assistance and financial resources to cope with the migration crises and in order to allow them to fulfil their obligations where migration and integration are concerned. The second resolution to be treated is the Contribution of the European Committee of the Regions to the European Commission’s Work Programme 2017.

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From Amsterdam to Bratislava Building on the success of the Amsterdam Bureau and the signature of the Pact of Amsterdam last month, the Committee of the Regions is looking towards the Summit of Bratislava, which is taking place on 8-9 July 2016 and co-hosted by the Bratislava Self-Governing Region and the City of Bratislava thanks to the support of Ivo Nesrovnal, Mayor of

Plenary

Bratislava, and Pavol Frešo, President of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region.

Under the title ‘Invest and Connect’, EU leaders and representatives from both the public and private sector will consider how to strengthen connections between Europe’s people, places, ideas and resources through investment. A number of EPP Group members are due to

speak, including CoR President Markku Markkula, Adam Struzik, Christian Buchmann, Raffaele Cattaneo and Iñigo de la Serna Hernáiz.

More information is available on the dedicated website: cor.europa.eu/bratislavasummit

Secretary General: Heinz-Peter Knapp Editor in chief: Kathryn Owens, kathryn.owens@cor.europa.eu, +32 2 282 2400 | Press Officer: Dominik Krakowiak

www.epp.cor.europa.eu

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