During the CoR President Vasco Cordero's first annual State of the Regions and Cities in the European Union address delivered today in the CoR Plenary, the EA Group President Karl Vanlouwe said that the EU must give due recognition to Europe's Regions in the EU decision making process. It is not always that Flanders, Corsica, and Catalonia to name a but a few receive the recognition they deserve and the EU must decentralise more rather than the current trend towards centralisation.
On climate change, the EA President said that real action can only be done effectively with regionally determined contributions. The increasing devastation of forest fires last summer as well as the lack of water or drought across the EU shows that regions need to take action and he highlighted the call of the Flemish government to have a new "Blue" deal that would deal with addressing drought amongst other issues.
Finally, he called for all regions and cities to support Ukraine in its time of need and full support is needed for the Alliance for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.