​On the first day of the Committee of the Regions' 105th Plenary session, held on 30 and 31 January 2014, the representatives of local and regional authorities were addressed by Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing President of the European Commission. Mr Barroso discussed the results of his second term in the office, in particular the developments in the fight against the financial and political crisis, as well as the European Commission's plans for the next year.

On behalf of the European Alliance group, President Dr Uno Silberg called Mr Barroso to make this year a year of implementation of new programmes and initiatives. He stressed that "although a lot of attention in the coming year may naturally move to the upcoming European elections and to the run for top jobs, that must not become an excuse for delaying actions needed to tackle EU's social, economic and environmental challenges." In addition, Dr Silberg stressed the importance of well-developed and targeted communication actions in the next months which would present European citizens the real added value of the European project and further European integrations. However, he insisted that the EU has to do away with a unilateral top down approach in certain issues if it wants to become more effective and more popular with its citizens.

Dr Uno Silberg Speech ET