On Wednesday, 28 September the 14th meeting of the CIVEX commission meeting was held under the new presidency of Vincenzo Bianco (IT/PES).

EA President Karl Vanlouwe was one of the speakers in the debate on the opinion on legal migration and the European Commission's communication on attracting skills and talent to the EU. During his speech, Mr Vanlouwe highlighted the need to give sufficient attention to legal migrants, in an effort to help them integrate within EU societies, and stated that this should be done in cooperation with regional and local authorites.

"Migrants' skills and talents can only fully develop if they have sufficient knowledge of the language and culture of the host country," said Mr Vanlouwe, pointing to the cooperation between the region of Flanders and the Huis van het Nederlands as an example to follow in organizing migrant integration initiatives.

In the exploratory debate on the role of EU cities and regions in rebuilding Ukraine, two of our members made an intervention - Mr Gerard Martí Figueras i Alba - the Secretary for Government's foreign action in the Government of Catalonia - as well as Mr Miroslaw Lech – Mayor of the Korycin municipality in Poland.

Mr Figueras i Alba had underlined that the importance of regions and cities in the efforts of accepting Ukrainian refugees and first relief efforts. He He also underlined that the work for the establishment of a framework for EU assistance in rebuilding Ukraine is a new challenge for the capacity of the institutions, but stressed:

"We have the capacity for support. The EU response must involve the engagement of local governments and cities". He added that Catalonia has mobilised resources to support Ukrainian refugees and NGOs working on the ground.

Important points were raised also by Mr Lech, who talked to the importance of long-term, strategic thinking and the prospect of Ukraine joining the Union.

Underlining the specificity of Ukraine's land area, particularly the vastness of Ukraine's rural areas, he proposed that the commission should at some point in the future hold a separate session on the development of Ukraine's rural areas, and the necessity of adjusting the Cohesion and CAP policies to address challenges specific to them.

Mr Lech proposed that the LEADER programme could be a good tool for supporting the development of Ukraine's rural areas.

Lastly, he suggested that "it would be worthwhile to organize a body consisting of regional authorities' representatives, but also NGOs, in order to have a conversation on how to help and how to develop the areas that really need this support."

The session ended with a follow-up discussion on the conclusions of the Conference of the Future of Europe.