​On 09 October the CoR President Karl Heinz Lambertz  delivered the State of the Union from a regions and cities perspective in presence of A.Tajani, President of the European Parliament.

The EA 1st Vice-President Stanislaw Szwabski in his response called for a visionary Europe with regions and cities at its heart.

"Today in the EU there is a clear tendency of centralisation and the current institutional set up does not enable LRAs to actively participate in the policy and decision making process.  This in my view needs to change", he said

Gdynia city councillor also underlined the need for the EU to take action against those member States who act against their citizens and local authorities.

"It is often the national governments who, fuelling the rhetoric against the EU, put at risk the resources for subnational governments. The EU has to take a firm line against those Member States who act against our values. We must not penalise local authorities or withdraw vital source of funding to them because of the mistakes or actions of the central governments.