During the 6th meeting of the CIVEX commission, held on 16 February, members held discussions on a number of topical issues.
Discussing the Conference on the Future of Europe and the CoR's role in it, our first vice president Karl Vanlouwe said that the Conference must be a platform for an open and in-depth debate on subsidiarity, proportionality, efficiency and role of the regions in the EU.
Mayor of Terespol, Poland, Krzysztof Iwaniuk called for more focus on Eastern Partnership countries, particularly those bordering the EU, adding that "our external borders are becoming more and more like Berlin Wall, a situation that the Covid-19 pandemic has only made worse. Mr Iwaniuk further added that, as an ambassador of local and regional authorities, Committee of the Regions should pay particular attention to sustainable development and EU's remote regions which face severe economic hardships.
Rapporteur on establishing a mechanism for a permanent dialogue with citizens and Galway City councilor, Declan McDonnell said that citizens and local and regional authorities from the Western Balkans should be part of the Conference on the Future of Europe and that the EU must explore informal ways to approach people in those countries. Cllr McDonnell also said that a mechanism for a permanent dialogue with citizens and the CitizEN network proposed in his opinion can be a very tangible contribution to the Conference on the Future of Europe and to a transformation and re-thinking of 21st century democracy in Europe.
Finally, discussing disinformation, conspiracy theories and anti-COVID measures protests, our CIVEX coordinator József Kóbor (Pecs city council, Hungary) said that EU must approve all available safe vaccines and strongly promote vaccination of as many people as soon as possible. In this regard, cooperation between the media, governments and the EU is key to overcoming vaccine skepticism, he added.
The next meeting of the CIVEX commission will take place on 30 March.