President Tzitzikostas statement at the first meeting of the Executive Board of the Conference on the future of Europe

​​ ” The European Committee of the Regions stands ready to sign and endorse the Joint Declaration of the Conference on the Future of Europe, on behalf of all 1 million locally and regionally elected leaders, representing the vote of the citizens living in 300 regions and over 90.000 municipalities.

I welcome the reference in the Joint Declaration to the regions and cities, and to the regional and national parliaments. We are prepared to start our work, via our political and local dialogues, to ensure that the Conference goes beyond capital cities.

We recently established a High-Level Group on Democracy led by President Herman van Rompuy. We will team-up with the business sector and the civil society, with the territorial European and national associations, with the European Movement International and the European Youth Forum, amongst others. Our foreseen local dialogue on 9th of May will mark the territorial dimension of the conference. In addition to our many Local Dialogues across Europe, we will organize a regional and local Summit during the French Presidency.

As Governors, Presidents of Regions, Mayors we have been at the forefront, fighting the pandemic, and now we are ready to start the recovery. Today Europe and its people need trust and leadership and the Conference must enable this.

This Conference is not an objective per se. Our common goal must be to honestly engage with people, and in particular with the young people. We want less institutional complexity and bureaucracy. We want a better democratic representation of people’s trust via their vote in the European, national, regional and local elections. Let’s reinforce our common House of European Democracy by strengthening its roof – the EU, its walls – our Member States, and its foundations - the regions, cities and villages.