 Dear Chair, dear colleagues, let me first of all thank Mahfret Weber for the incredible work and his very constructive attitude in the working group. Today, citizens all across Europe ask for more transparency, inclusiveness and participation. Locally and regionally elected politicians bridge citizens and national governments by listening to them on a daily basis, by implementing European and national laws on the ground and by channeling to the capital needs that are rising from local business and civil society. So the role is enshrined in the constitutions, the capacity to act is supported by budgets, the legitimacy is secured by fair elections. What we ask citizens today is to consider, to propose here the same tools they are already in use at national level to influence national policy. We propose citizens to use mayors and regional councils for echoing their voice here in Brussels and in Strasbourg, thus bringing Europe closer to them. We propose to use the principle of subsidiarity as political answer to their legitimate requests and in fact through a more structured implication of local and regional authorities in EU affairs including through a stronger committee of regions. An answer can be given to the main request put forward by citizens, namely better involvement and closing the gap between them and the institutions. We the regionally and locally elected politicians are European politicians because we make Europe happen on the ground, we implement policies and we adopt regional legislations that are indeed essential to transpose the European laws. We therefore believe the answer for a performing European democracy can be also found by a stronger role given to the local and regional authorities within the legislative process of this union. Thank you very much.