In the presence of the European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, the President of the EA Group and Gdynia city Councillor, Stanisław Szwabski called for stronger cooperation with the European Parliament in order to improve the image of the EU among our citizens.

"The CoR could be a powerful amplifier for the European Parliament and act as a conduit for addressing issues of concerns to citizens. And it would be great", said Mr Szwabski, "if we could capitalise on, on one hand, the political weight of the European Parliament and its members and, on the other, the CoR members' proximity to people by joining our forces"

Mr Szwabski in his speech said also that the EU has to go back to its core values that are at the basis of its creation pointing out that "the identity of our EU, the principles of freedom and democracy, should not be taken for granted and we cannot remain silent with governments clamping down on basic rights and freedoms."

President Szwabski also called upon the EU to ensure an urban rural balanced development and adequate resources in the future Cohesion Policy. "The elections in UK and in France clearly showed a huge fragmentation in the society between the urban and rural areas, those who have benefitted by globalisation and those who have been left behind.  We now see clearly that if EU and its member states do not adequately support territories with structural (geographic) constraints, we are going to pay a huge price", he added.

Finally, Mr Szwabski said that the CoR members count on the European Parliament to ensure that the future cohesion policy will have an adequate budget. "If we are to weaken the policy which contributes the most to showing the benefits of the EU, we would not bridge the existing gap between EU and its citizens", he concluded.