On 30 June the Plenary Session of the European Committee of the Regions held a debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe with Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the Conference Executive Board, Manfred Weber, Guy Verhofstadt and Iratxe García Pérez.
Speaking on behalf of the European Alliance Group, Nanette Maupertuis, member of the Executive Council of Corsica recalled the importance of the Conference on the Future of Europe to collect and get feedback from the people and to establish permanent mechanisms linking EU with its citizens.
"We want an EU that reaches out to all its citizens regardless they live in a capital city or in a village. The EU grows in influence if it is able to speak the languages of the people and stronger when it promotes our local cultural heritage," she said.
She also added that the EU is more cohesive when it ensures connectivity between centre and its periphery stressing that citizens living on islands deserve to have the same opportunities as their peers living on the mainland, and benefit from the single and digital market.
Warning against the trend of centralisation in the implementation of the European Recovery Plan, she also called for more decentralisation and collaboration between all levels of governments in order to deliver a robust and sustainable economic recovery.
