​On 22 March, members of the European Committee of the Regions held a debate on the integration of migrants and social cohesion with Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship.

During the debate, several EA group members took the floor, shared their local good practices and outlined the main challenges they are facing in their communities.

EA group president, Mr Karl Vanlouwe stressed that successful integration of migrants must be based on three pillars as is already the case in Flanders: language acquisition, assistance in the acceptance of host society's norms and values and career orientation to enable the newcomers to access the job market as quickly as possible. Member of the Scottish Parliament Ms Mairi Gougeon presented the "New Scots" integration strategy which coordinates efforts across all sectors to support refugees and asylum seekers in their integration from day one while delegate of the Government of Navarre, Mr Mikel Irujo Amezaga proposed to replicate some of the financial instruments available to local and regional authorities in innovation policy in the field of integration of migrants and social cohesion. Finally, Mr Kieran McCarthy of the Cork City Council highlighted the Action Plan of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees and shared some of the concerns expressed in the document, such as problems in acquiring funds from the national government to address the integration issues, different political priorities across member states and regions, insufficient alignment of EU funds to the needs of local authorities needs as well as the need for better synergies and better brokering links.