Day two of the CoR's 167th plenary session featured a series of opinion debates in which interventions came from EA Group members René Jansen, Kieran McCarthy, Caroline Dwane Stanley and Liesa Scholzen.
The day opened with an exchange on the CIVEX opinion: 'A simpler and faster Europe', wherein members René Jansen and Kieran McCarthy weighed in to stress the importance of local and regional involvement with EU simplification efforts. Mr. Jansen set the tone, calling for structured involvement of LRAs in shaping self-executing regulations, implementation dialogues, impact assessments and strategic foresight processes. 'Let us work together to turn simplification into genuine empowerment' he urged. Maintaining this line, Mr. McCarthy stressed: 'Without LRAs, we will only build a more complicated and slower Europe', problematising the centralisation narrative emerging around the Commission's upcoming MFF and calling for an appropriate strategy to counter it effectively.
A subsequent debate on intergenerational fairness saw further engagement by Kieran McCarthy and intervention by Liesa Scholzen. Ms. Scholzen described intergenerational fairness as contingent on bringing generations closer together and more inclusively involving people, particularly politically alienated youths, in decision-making processes. She stressed that this can be achieved by enhancing and investing in social infrastructures and public services to crucially strengthen communities. Mr. McCarthy similarly promoted increased public investment into social infrastructure, alongside future-proofing of policymaking through 'youth checks', as fundamental precepts of intergenerational solidarity and social mobility. With this in mind, he emphasised: 'supporting future and present generations is key to fostering an inclusive and sustainable society.
Finally, Kieran McCarthy and Caroline Dwane Stanley debated their visions for the UN Climate Change Conference 2025 in Belém, Brazil. 'We need higher ambition, stronger multi-level cooperation and a just transition' stated Mr. McCarthy, calling on COP38 participants to empower local and regional authorities and foster stakeholder engagement so that locally responsive climate action plans can foster a democratic and decentralised transition. Ms. Dwane Stanley complementarily advocated for more dedicated EU funding towards local and regional climate actions. She cited projects from her home of Portlaoise, Ireland's first low carbon town centre, to illustrate how increased financial support can support the delivery of effective climate transition from the bottom up.