​On 27 April the COTER commission unanimously approved the opinion of Cork City Councillor Kieran McCarthy on the assessment of the implementation of the Urban Agenda for the EU, launched in May 2016 with the signature of the Pact of Amsterdam.

In his speech, Mr McCarthy praised the work of the cities involved in the partnerships and welcomed their ground-breaking working methods as they directly engaged urban authorities in the EU policy making process.

He also underlined the importance for all institutions to reaffirm their commitment towards the Urban Agenda and to formalise the process

"The Urban Agenda offers too much potential to improve the future functioning of our cities to be restricted to a mere high quality networking exercise. It must instead be recognised as a binding political declaration, which is financially invested in and whose outcomes have concrete legitimacy and have impacts on legislation”, Mr McCarthy said.

Cllr McCarthy also moderated a discussion with European Investment Bank (EIB) representative on "Urbis", an advisory hub, created jointly with the European Commission to support cities in accessing investment funding.

During the meeting COTER also adopted opinions on low emission mobility and on cohesion in border regions.