 Dear colleagues, have we really realized what is happening next door? This war is killing children, it's bombarding maternity hospitals, it is vanishing people and their peaceful life in every local community in Ukraine. And above all, crises like the war that is happening near eastern borders remind us that the European Union does not exist in a vacuum. Imagine if we had this situation, this terror in the symbolic city of Strasbourg, for example. Dear friends, in the last weeks we have witnessed brave citizens and mayors standing behind their people. Today, all across Europe, regions and cities gather food, medicine and first aid supplies and send them to Ukraine and to border regions of Poland and Romania that are providing help and shelter to the almost 2 million Ukrainians that fled from their country. Like in the migration crisis, it is the regional and local authorities in border regions who shoulder most of the immediate support from Marseille and region of Söd is challenging humanitarian aid by the convoy for Ukraine to the city of Dansk in Poland who is raising funds to support Kiev and Viv hospitals. My region, Central Macedonia and Greece, sending medical supplies. And while our efforts for Ukraine prove that we are united, regional and local authorities need to be better and concretely supported by the European Union in order to deal with these crises. We therefore call on the European Union to think diplomacy both globally and locally to make use of the existing region to region and city to city partnerships. We are standing on the side of our Ukrainian partners and the time has come to move forward for a common European defense and foreign policy to not only protect our external borders but to uphold and cherish most what we cherish most, freedom and democracy. For this, we support the citizens' partner calling for an increased strategic autonomy of the European Union. The time to act is now.