 And we will move for our next point of the agenda. It's point 16. It's a debate on the European Commission priorities for 2023, focusing especially on the EU energy platform, critical raw materials, EU-UK relations. I would like particularly to welcome our gas speaker, Maros Evkovich, Vice President of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight. Let me thank you so much for accepting our invitation to be here today at the Committee of the Region's Plenary Session and especially for taking the time in such a busy day to share with us your thoughts and your insights about the European Commission's priorities. Vice President, I will give you the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Honourable members of the Committee of the Region, it is indeed a pleasure to be here, especially in such a busy day as we have this Thursday. And I think you just reflect these new dynamics which we have across the Europe and especially in Brussels. Of course, for me, it's a pleasure to have opportunity to address you again because your cities and regions have an important role to play as Europe faces a year which is turning out to be every bit as challenging as the last year, every bit as complicated as 2022. And our political priorities for 2023 are clear. I mean, we have to address the impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the energy crisis, energy security, the cost of living crisis as well. And of course, we have to focus as much as we can on the competitiveness of our companies and on attracting strategic investments to the European Union. And we want to do it in our European way, meaning driving forward the twin green and digital transitions. Before I would move on into some of these issues, I really would like to thank you, Mr. President and your committee for your broad support for 2023 commission work program. My colleagues in a college, me personally in our services, very much appreciated the resolution adopted in December, which provides very welcome input from the perspective of regional and local authorities on the key challenges and actions for the year ahead. So thank you very much for that. To start with Ukraine, it was a great pleasure for me to visit Kiev last week, together with my fellow commissioners. Not always you have that opportunity and feeling that you are touching history. We clearly had that feeling last week where we had the first historic meeting between the Ukrainian government and the College of Commissioners. And I have to say that our Ukrainian colleagues spent with us the whole day despite the fact that they are fighting the uteruses war in the east of the country. As you know, this first of its kind meeting between the government and the College of Commissioners was followed up by the EU Ukrainian summit. And with the Russians invasion nearing its first anniversary, today's European Council will be another opportunity to reiterate our rock solid support for Ukraine, which will last as long as it takes. And you know that in a few moments, President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky will be addressing the European Parliament in this building. And later on he will also have a chance to participate in the European Council where our heads of state and government are regularly meeting. I think that this just proves that Europe indeed plays very important role in helping Ukrainians to defend themselves. So far the EU and our member states and the European financial institutions have made around 50 billion euros available to Ukraine. And this includes 18 billion euros of micro-financial assistance instrument combining balance of payment support with funding for repair of damaged infrastructure and also reform agenda geared towards supporting Ukraine in its European path. It is intended for that past to ultimately lead to the EU membership for Ukraine. And I know Mr. President that the cities and regions have played a huge and crucial role in this effort, especially in taking in the millions of refugees fleeing the violence. And I know when the war abruptly started that were you, the mayors, the regional governors who opened the schools, who opened the cultural centers, who opened the sport holes to accommodate the refugees fleeing from the horrors of the war. And the fact that until today we have four million registered refugees in European Union and the fact that we managed to the wave was thanks to your efforts, thanks to the open hearts of the European citizens who just wanted to help and did it in the sincere, open manner. And it's very difficult to describe how much this is appreciated by Ukraine and government, by Ukrainians, but also by all of us here in the EU institutions, because we know what kind of challenge it was. And I think that with those thoughts on our minds we also have to think about the future. So we are turning our thinking to the reconstruction where the EU is committed to playing a major role as Ukraine seeks to build back better. Here of course, I welcome the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the construction of Ukraine which this committee launched together with its partners already in June 2022 to coordinate your work in this regard. At the same time, we continue our efforts to reduce Russia's ability to wage war and are preparing the 10th package of sanctions with the aim of having them in place in the coming days. If you allow me to turn to energy crisis. We are boosting our efforts to reduce our independence from Russia for self use under our repower EU plan. And we want to do it by diversifying our supplies. We want to become more energy efficient and we are accelerating our clean energy transition. We are currently working hard on organizing for the first time ever the joint purchasing of gas for Europe under the EU energy platform. You've probably been informed that President of the European Commission asked me to lead the effort in this regard and therefore I will be in close contact with you, with your government, with energy sectors in your countries because we have to make the best out of this opportunity for the first time in the history of EU to purchase gas together. We should do it because it will help us to leverage the political and market weight of Europe. It would reduce the risk of our companies engaging in the bidding wars against each other as we have seen last August. And it would also secure access to gas supplies at sustainable prices. Joint purchasing will also send a strong signal of unity and underlying our European ability to act together in the times of crisis. Our objective here is to have this tool ready by April to support the filling of the gas storages ahead of the next filling season. I was asking your prime ministers and ministers of energy to inform us these days, what is the rough idea of every member state, how much gas, what is the volume you would like to purchase through this common platform. Which are the companies, be it energy producer or energy consumers, we should be part of the consortium which we are trying to form on the European level. So far I think we get more concrete responses from 12 member states, but we'll be urging every one of them to respond to us and to present us their concrete ideas. And if you can help us to transmit this message, again, I would very much appreciate it. Alongside this work, next month the commission will set out its proposals for a longer term targeted reform of the electricity market design. I mean, we are all suffering from very high energy prices and we simply need to address and help to mitigate the effects of high gas prices on electricity prices. We must also make increasing use of renewables and of course these have to be reflected in the price setting mechanism. So to this end, we put forward the recommendation to speed up the permitting for major renewable energy projects which is very often the main obstacle why we cannot have more renewables in our system. If you allow me a few words on overall European competitiveness. If we are to achieve our wider climate ambitions while making full use of the opportunities provided by international trade, it is imperative that we retain our global competitiveness and attract strategic investments into the European Union. At the time where others around the world are taking measures which could negatively affect these aims, we must also consider how to best support Europe's thriving clean tech industry. For example, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act or as it's called, IRA, is said to have a negative impact on our clean tech industry as it stands. And we still face unfair competition from China's massive subsidies in its clean tech sector. In response last week, we put forward the Green Deal Industrial Plan working around four pillars. Developing a predictable and as simplified as possible regulatory environment including fast-track permitting for strategic projects. We want also to speed up access to finance including streamlined stay date. We want to accelerate training, upskilling and rescaling to reflect our rapidly changing labor market. And also we want to ensure open trade for resilient supply chains. There is also the possibility to use around 250 billion euros of repowered EU funding to benefit our net zero industries. For example, this could include member states using this money for the tax breaks. The message to the clean tech industry must be very clear. You belong in Europe where you will find all that you need to succeed. And I would even enlarge it. The message to the industry should be we want you not only to stay but to prosper in European Union. Of course, to make sure that you would succeed in that effort, we would need to improve access to the critical raw materials because absolutely key and necessary for clean technologies such as batteries, photovoltaic panels and windmill turbines. And these are the technologies that are enabling the between transition. But simply without these materials without these critical raw materials there is simply no green and digital future of Europe. And we have to be very serious about how to make sure that it would increase our strategic autonomy if it comes to the access to the critical raw materials. As you know, right now Europe is heavily dependent on imports of critical raw materials from small number of third countries which do not always share our values. For example, the EU currently supplies only 1% of its own needs for key battery raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. In response, next month we will put forward the EU's critical raw materials act and the act will support development of the full European value chain from extraction to recycling, meeting high environmental, societal and governance standards and working closely with the local communities. In parallel, we are seeking to diversify supply sources by working with like-minded countries such as Ukraine, Canada or countries of Western Bocas. If you allow me to conclude on EU-UK relations. It remains our desire to have a positive and stable relationship with United Kingdom. We are partners on the global stage. We share the same values and we face the same challenges. In this context, we continue together with the UK our intensive talks scoping for potential joint solutions related to the implementation of the protocol on Ireland, Northern Ireland. In this, the commission and the UK government are working closely and constructively. Both sides agree that joint solutions are needed to respond to the real life concerns of all communities in Northern Ireland. Process is being, progress is being made but several difficulties still remain. But while this is not an easy effort, the commission will do everything in its power to agree a joint way forward. Finally, few words on our work with your committee. I very much welcome the commitment and active role of the Committee of Regions and the Reg Hub Network in contributing to our better regulation agenda and the work of the Fit for Future platform. In particular, I'm grateful for Reg Hub's input to the Fit for Future platform including its special report on 21st century rules for 21st century infrastructure. Finally, Reg Hub also contributed to the finalization of the 2023 annual work program of the platform that was adopted on the 31st of January. And I know that I can count on your continued support for the work of the platform to ensure that it delivers to the benefit of citizens, businesses and regional and local authorities. I will stop here because usually what is the most interesting and important in these meetings is a discussion. So I'm very much looking forward to your questions and I'm ready to answer your question. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I now give the floor. We will start by the political groups. We now give the floor to member Jelena Drehanin for two minutes. Thank you, and dear Vice President Sefkowitz. Thank you for your personal and constant support to the local and regional authorities of the committee of regions. And I wish a similar display of recognition would come from the whole European Commission. In the European Union, 1.2 million local and regional leaders are in the front line of the daily basis to address the multiple crisis. President of Madrid region, Diaz, I also reinforced the hospital's end all during the COVID, becoming a reference hospital for the whole European Union. Mayor of Kludnabortka Emilbock introduced important measures to save energy in public buildings. In my municipality, Heddinger, we have tough requirements on climate-neutral tenders. There are many more similar example in the committee of regions on local and regional barometer and leaders helping citizens, families, and small and medium businesses. And yet, if you look at least state of the Union address, you would not find one single mention of the role played by mayors and regional leaders because Europe cannot exist in a vacuum. Europe needs regions and cities and citizen regions. We also need a recognition from Europe. And this is even more important given the EU elections approaching with the fast pace. We need mutual trust in order to secure the need and strong support for European policies starting in our cities and regions. So, dear Vice President, whilst the EU has given some tools to the local and regional authorities to achieve results, a more structured recognition should be granted. So let me invite you to consider to adapt our cooperation agreement between European Commission and the European Committee on Regions accordingly in order to better plan ahead coordinated actions between Brussels and European cities and regions in many policies. So thank you very much. Thank you, Member Michael Murphy. You have the floor for two minutes. Thank you, dear Vice President. I'm very happy to take the floor on future EU-UK relations as COA rapporteur on this important topic. We recently had the pleasure to meet in Westminster at the last meeting of the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly. I know this week you spoke at the General Affairs Council on how the EU and UK are still trying to find common solutions to the protocol's implementation, the integrity of the single market and real-life concerns of all communities. And here in the COR, that's what we're about, real-life concerns and real-life solutions. And on that front, Vice President, we are your best ally. And the same is true for EU-UK relations. I've said many times, and I want to highlight it again here today, that the narrative is different, different at the level of the devolved governments, local governments on both sides of the channel than the UK's national governments narrative. And I again want to highlight some examples. The partnership between Nort, Ryan Vesphalia and Greater Manchester in the area of education and science. The participation of Kent County Council in the Straits Committee involving six local authorities from four different countries in the area of education and business. The Vanguard Initiative, of which Wales is a leading member in the area of innovation and regional smart specialization strategies. Our studies, and I want to highlight the work of the COR-UK Contact Group, show there is untapped potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as low-carbon technologies, environment, resource efficiency, climate mitigation practices, and EU-UK subnational cooperation in relative international fora. Thank you, Vice President, and I look forward to your continued support. Thank you, Member East-Soul-Trees. You have the floor for four minutes. Yeah. Herr Präsident Cordero, Herr Kommissar Sefkowicz. Ich breche für die SPD-Fraktion. Sie haben eben angesprochen, dass der Zugang zu kritischen Rohstoffen verbessert werden muss, und ich freue mich, dass die Kommission Anfang März diesen Jahres ein umfangreiches Paket über kritische Rohstoffe vorlegen wird, gerade auch aus den negativen Erfahrungen in der Corona-Krise und Ukraine-Krieg. Und Sie haben eben gesagt, Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, da können die EU nur 1% des Eigenbedarfs decken. Das ist ja eigentlich erschreckend. Wirtschaftspolitisch betrachtet ist deshalb ganz richtig und wichtig, dass wir uns als ADR nochmal mit der Widerstandsfähigkeit der EU bei kritischen Rohstoffen befassen. Moderne Volkswirtschaften mit langen Wertschöpfungsketten können ohne eine sichere, umweltverträgliche wettbewerbsfähige Versorgung mit mineralischen und metallischen Rohstoffen nicht dauerhaft funktionieren. Die Versorgung mit kritischen Rohstoffen muss deshalb ganz breit gefäschert aufgestellt werden. Und als EU-Ausschuss der Region hatten wir uns schon mal 2021 mit diesem Thema befasst. Ich durfte damals für den ADR die Berichterstattung übernehmen. Und wir haben damals betont, dass wir erstmal auf eine angemessene Rohstoffversorgung angewiesen sind. Dass wir die kritischen Rohstoffe ja nicht nur für erneuerbare Energien brauchen, sondern auch für Elektrofahrzeuge, für stationäre Stromspeicher, ebenso für Großanlagen, für Wasserelektrolyse, zur Herstellung von grünem Wasserstoff, für Radiofrequenz, Mikroships, für 5G- und 6G-Funkmasten bis hin zu Wasserentsalzungsanlagen. Das heißt, die Abhängigkeit von kritischen Rohstoffen muss dringend reduziert werden. Und wie schaffen wir das? Die inländische Rohstoffgewinnung in der EU muss gestärkt werden. Und das ist kein einfaches Unterfangen. Das wissen wir. In gleichem Maße wie fossile Energieträger durch Wind und Sonnenenergie ersetzt werden, werden viele neue Bergwerke für kritische Rohstoffe notwendig. Aber das müssen wir erst mal die Leute davon überzeugen, dass sie das auch wollen und mitmachen. Und bei der Beschaffung aus Drittländern müssen wir darauf achten, dass wir nicht nur von einem Land oder von wenigen Ländern abhängig sind. Bei all diesen Verfahren spielen wir als Städte und Regionen aufgrund unserer Expertise der Genehmigungszuständigkeit sowie der Wertschöpfung und Beschaffungseffekte vor Ort eine grundlegende Rolle. Wichtig ist deshalb ein Maßnahmepaket. Und da ist es mir ganz wichtig, dass wir ein Frühwarnsystem auflegen. Das war in dem alten Vorschlag noch nicht drin, dass wir eine Schwachstellenanalyse vornehmen, um ganz früh Korrekturmärsnahmen vorzunehmen. Und da kann auch das Notfallinstrument für den Binnenmarkt, das wir gestern hier beschlossen haben, eine ganz notwendige Hilfe sein. Und ganz wichtig ist mir auch, dass wir Vorräte brauchen und Produktionsstätten in Europa. Wir haben im Saarland, aus dem kleinen Bundesland in Deutschland, aus dem ich komme, schmerzliche Erfahrungen machen müssen, als sie Halbleiter fehlten und die gesamte Automobilindustrie entschwanken kam. Arbeitnehmerinnen kurzarbeit wurden, mussten und nichts mehr gingen. Sowas müssen wir in Zukunft verhindern und deshalb sind mir auch zwei Punkte ganz wichtig. Wir brauchen das Know-how aus den Bergbau-Industrien. Wir haben zum Beispiel im Saarland eine Forschung zur Lithium-Gewinnung aus groben Wasser. Und es ist wichtig, dass wir Aufklären und Akzeptanz einfordern, dass wir auch Bergwerke in Europa wieder aufmachen. Und überall dem steht natürlich auch die Finanzierung für die Bevorratung, für Investitionen in Minen, in Raffinerien, in Recyclingkapazitäten, innerhalb und außerhalb der Union. Und da wäre das Schippgesetz in gute Anregung. Thank you. Thank you. Now give the floor to members, Gunnarz, and since you have the floor for three minutes. Microphone. Sorry. We are not linear, we are just a percentage of waste. But what can we do? Well, for example, we are living in a beautiful city, which is Latvia, and we are talking about the energy-effectiveness of our companies. We are building schools, building bridges, and building a network of electricity and energy resources. And then we can build energy resources base in the city. We are transforming the central power plant of Lepais for the first time in 10 years. The amount of waste in the city is 80% of the product that is waste. That is the product that we are building in the future. And that is the reason why the economy is growing so much. But that is the reason why we are building a network of electricity and energy resources, which is the source of the energy resource, or the source of the energy resources. And it is important that we do not have to worry about waste, or whatever we are talking about, whatever we are talking about, we will have to find the source of the energy resources. That will be the people, and that will not affect the energy efficiency and the energy efficiency of the company. That is our first energy efficiency, and that is the reason why we are building a network of energy resources. Thank you. Now members, Aldrich Flasak, two and a half minutes. Dear commissioner, not only Czechia in the EU is facing one of the highest in your inflation, connecting with energy crisis, caused mainly by Russia's unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. EU is in a very difficult situation now, and to all governments have undertaken many measures to mitigate the impacts on citizens and businesses. The Czech state will allocate about 10 billion euro in 2023 for various aid measures to households and companies, including energy subsidies, higher pensions and other welfare payments. When we look at the objective of building an energy union, it's based on security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. These can be achieved through developing the appropriate infrastructure, not applying a one-size-fits-all approach. All member states have to choose the most suitable energy mix that will enable them to meet climate goals and targets, as well as becoming independent. For example, in March 2022, Czechia notified the commission of its plan to support the construction and operation of a new nuclear power plant in Dukovanie, which is already the site of an existing nuclear power plant. The new plant will increase the security of electricity supply for Czechia and for neighboring countries, helping the decimbarization of the energy sector and diversifying the Czech energy mix. The inclusion of nuclear in the EU taxonomy will support European sources of nuclear energy and put us on equal footing with other parts of the world. Finally, let's have an energy transition that is socially sustainable. What we need are targeted actions to reduce energy poverty and not only exacerbate it. Thank you. Thank you. Member Carl von Loh, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you, President. Mr. Vice-President colleague, I would like to thank Vice-President Sefkovic for his presence here in our Committee of the Regions. As you said, 2022, but also 2023, is a year of war. But 2023 is especially a year of support and of solidarity from indeed our regions, from the member states, from the cities, for our Ukrainian friends. And during the war in Ukraine, we learned again how dependent the European Union of third countries is on the surface of energy. And that must change. Priority security is indeed a priority. The transition to energy independence must also be sustainable. In addition to renewable energy, where we invest a lot in Finland, we must also be able to look at the renewed, renewed nuclear energy that is affordable, reliable and sustainable. Something that is less of an attention on this topic, but what we have seen in the past summer are the terrible forest fires and floods. And I also need the European Commission to look at how we as the Finnish government have worked out a blood deal. Less effort on hardening, more wetting, maximum circular water use. Here we have 70 actions, 400 projects to protect us from water scarcity and droughts through infrastructure works, wet grasslands and various catch-ups. And my final point is of course the EU-UK relationship. Three years ago, the UK finally left the European Union. Ever since, there have been disagreements about the Irish protocol. And I'm interested to hear the Commission's views on a possible way to solve the conflict, keeping trade lines open and avoiding a hard border on the Irish conflict. So I would like to ask you which domains the cooperation with the United Kingdom, our neighbours and partners, will be. We have heard our cooperation with the universities, but there is also the macro region around the North Sea where the last start regions together with the United Kingdom could be together. Thank you. Member Joseph Frey, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President. The external threats have to have one answer for the EU. We have to stand together in all of Europe, hold together, but also grow together. That's why we should today talk about the United Kingdom, but also about our relationship to Switzerland. I'll wink at you, so that you can see me. Since the break of the negotiations over the framework with Switzerland, the concerns are high that the intensive cooperation that has existed and the good relations could be broken. At one point, I see a similarity between Great Britain and Switzerland. Because behind the foreign policy, there are completely different voices in this country and a motivation to create clarity about the relations with the European Union. In the last few weeks, for example, there have been more proposals in Switzerland and think-attacks that overcome the blockade and want to create clarity about the relations with the European Union. Perhaps also motivated by the disastrous development in the United Kingdom. A new representative of Europe shows that the current foreign policy of Switzerland is breaking down in terms of framework for the Swiss citizens and citizens for unhappiness. They call stable relations to the European Union as the most important and at the same time the most urgent political point. And with today's decision to participate in the EWR, more than two-thirds of the voters would be put into the Swiss urn for a year. On such a result, some member states would be happy with us. But the elections that are taking place in Switzerland and the European elections in the next year could lead to a delay. That's why we ask you to take this box very seriously and to contribute to a high priority. Because only the European integration can bring us together in Europe with a necessary security. Thank you. Member Mark Spike, you have the floor for one minute. Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, thank you very much. All the political dossiers that have been covered so far have one thing in common. Regions and cities play an important role. So this assembly is not a vanity fair. It's an element of active subsidiarity to improve the quality of EU policy and EU legislation. And that's also true for the future platform you mentioned. And for the involvement of the red job. And I think now the time is ripe to bring that to the next level because it's confined to existing legislation. But we have to improve the role of the CUR in a more strategic way. I mean, you have foresight in your title. And I think it's really important to bring in our expertise in a more forward-looking way when it comes to regulation and improving the EU policy-making work. So active subsidiarity, and that's the most important point, is not a policy of demarcation. It's a policy for the mutual benefit of the EU Commission on the one side and the CUR on the other side. Thank you very much. Thank you, member Vicenzo Bianco. You have the floor for one minute. President, I will express my sincere appreciation for the evaluations we have heard this morning. I think that in the regions and cities we can play a very decisive role in this matter. But we need a tight harmony, not only with the national governments but with the institutions of the European Union. For this reason, the reflections that you shared with the committee this morning are particularly positive. There are some realities, even in the south of Europe, even in my land, Sicily, which right now is in a state of great difficulty for an environmental emergency. We have a red alert of civil protection with climatic conditions, we can play a positive role to face and solve the issues. Thank you, member. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Transitioning speedily to green energy solutions is not only imperative from a climate standpoint, it's also a means for developing energy security. By developing our own renewable energy sources, we can move away from needing to seek out imports and leaving ourselves vulnerable to external shocks. But it's not merely energy transition that is needed, and I'm glad to hear Mr. Sechkovich mention the need for energy efficiency across our union. Reducing energy waste must be a top priority, and this is something that LRAs have a huge role to play in. Regions and cities have the local knowledge and oversight to map out and implement retrofit projects of publicly owned buildings and support our citizens to reduce their own energy needs. And this is something that we need to be supported on and worked with. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, member. Markus Gleikmann, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. The topic of this year was certainly not difficult to deal with. We will probably deal with the consequences of Corona, the outcome of the war, especially in the energy sector and the high inflation. In my opinion, the training strategy for experts that should be used for FITFOR 55 and the focus on the expansion of limited, intelligent, controlled distribution networks in order to continue to address the question of storage. At this point, I would like to point out the impact of the region and the regional leadership. We want constructive subsidarity. In the past years, we have been intensively involved in the discussion process of the working plan with the name of the commission. Unfortunately, the current structure of the transition with such a name through the commission is not necessarily to motivate the extensive work of the name of the commission to intensify. In the end, it comes to the communities and regional leadership to implement the goals. This must also be stronger in the discussion process between the institutions. Thank you very much. Member Josko Klizovic, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you. It is undisputable that energy is at the heart of our progress, our development and all the crises we are addressing these days. And today, with skyrocketing prices, the energy is neither affordable nor accessible for everyone. In my city, for example, the electricity is used by tramwise as a popular means of transport has risen 16 times from 5 to 8 million euros. The situation is not much different in schools, kindergartens, and city hospitals. The situation threatens to disrupt public services provided by local authorities. And that must not happen. Thus, this situation demands concerted action of the EU, national governments, and local authorities to manage it, which in concrete terms means an increase of local authorities involvement in national and EU policy development. Local authorities must be at the heart of the energy market structural reforms planned in 2023 with mandatory consultation mechanisms, such as multilevel climate and energy dialogues. Local authorities should be granted a direct access to funds and technical assistance for improving energy efficiency and boosting renewables. Thank you. Member Ratislav Trinka, you have the floor for one minute. The world has confirmed that we could not take a better road. As we hope, in Ukraine there will soon be a post-war recovery and energy systems. The Košticka region, which borders the border with Ukraine, is prepared for the natural pillar of the bridge, which will connect and support cooperation on renewable energy between the European Union and Ukraine. The region leads the goal, leads the road, and therefore I demand support from above. I want to support you, Mr. President of the European Commission, to ensure that the region has the fastest way to take this road. Thank you. Member Yiri Konek, you have the floor for one minute. Izil de Gomes, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Just to say two short words and to reinforce the role we have played throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the cities and regions. We have already proved that we are capable of doing well and doing better. We also need to learn from the good experiences that are at the level of Europe. Therefore, I think there must be a way to share these experiences, because, as you usually say, the road has already been invented, and we could also take advantage of these good experiences at the level of Europe so that we, locally and regionally, can apply them. Therefore, this is also a challenge to be able to bring to the knowledge of the Committee of the Regions and, of course, of all the commissioners, what is good is done in each of our regions. I think it will be a great value. Thank you. Thank you very much. Member Yoss, every bunny, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much. Thank you. This concludes our request for the floor. Now I will give the floor to Vice President Sefkovic for final remarks. You have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, and I really would like to thank you for your statements, for your interventions, for your questions, and I will try to respond to the best of my abilities. Madam Drenan, in highlighting the importance of the European cooperation in the field of energy and to kind of be inspired by the good European approach in the COVID crisis, and especially common purchase of vaccines. And she was highlighting how important role by the cities and municipalities was played in all the crises we went through over the last two, three years. And I just really would like to reassure you that it's very much appreciated. I mean, we know about it. Maybe not always expressed it in verbatim, but we know that without mayors, without governors, without local knowledge, simply Europe would not function. And I would say also the program of session of the Committee of Regions and the attendance of all my colleagues commissioners in the discussions here is just a reflection of how much we appreciate to cooperate with you. I know that we are now discussing with Mr. President and Secretary-General what we can do to have our cooperation more efficient, more pragmatic. I think that was also the point made by Mr. Gleichmann. And we will be looking into the ways how to make it more practical, more useful for you. For us, we would feel the better feedback and you will have also the access to the processes which are very often under huge time pressure being executed right now because it was very much driven by the, I would say, perma-crisis we go through right now in the EU. To Mr. Murphy, thank you very much for your kind words. Indeed, real-life concerns of the people in the Northern Ireland are very high on our minds. As you know, I recognize publicly that there are unintended consequences of the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, but we can solve them only jointly, jointly with our UK partners because this is what will give to the people in Northern Ireland predictability, stability. It will give them legal certainty and I'm sure it will open new doors for the investors who would like to benefit from the fact that Northern Ireland would be unique place in the world with having access to both very important internal markets. That's one of the UK and of course that's one of the European Union and when I was talking to the leaders in Northern Ireland, I think we shared with all of them my proposition to them that if you look at 25 years of the Good Friday Belfast Agreement we very much appreciate that it was about the peace but I think that the next 25 years could be not only about the peace but it should be also about the prosperity and I think that if you manage to solve the issues which are on the table jointly in a good spirit and trustful relationship between EU and UK I think we will deliver for all communities in Northern Ireland and it will open this new chapter of influx of investments from US, from Canada, from European Union and I think that people in the Northern Ireland will be first to benefit. To Madame Riisse, you're absolutely right if it comes to critical raw materials and I think that the recent developments and the fact that we are paying such a high price for our dependency on one major supplier the fossil fuels who on top of it is very hostile to Europe I'm talking here about Russia should be a reminder that it should never ever be in the same situation if it comes to the autonomous action of Europe. Dependency is expensive, dependency is dangerous and everything in these days unfortunately can be weaponized. We see it with energy and we can see it with critical raw materials therefore we are preparing this act on critical raw materials but we want to make sure that it would explore all the sources of the critical raw materials we have in Europe, what we have in our neighborhood what we can develop together with our friends in Western Balkans, in Ukraine, on Greenland what we can do in a partnership like relationship with countries with the same values as we have like Canada, like Australia but also to be ready to go to the further distances when it would be necessary just to make sure that we would have diversified supply of the critical raw materials to Europe. Your role would be absolutely crucial in the situations where we discover that we have critical raw materials in Europe to help us to work with the public opinion because you are those who are trusted the most you are on the ground, you have the major impact on the public opinion and we have to find the ways together how to move from the approach which is very often linked with the critical raw materials and the bad name mining has in Europe how to move it from not in my neighborhood this famous NIMBY to what I was told once by a very agile NGO into PIMBY, please in my neighborhood of course it's much easier to say to be done it has to be clear that there should be absolutely highest of the environmental standards that it should be a benefit sharing with the local population and that we simply have to respect the rules that would avoid these negative stories of the past where very often when I talk to local population is telling us we do not want this again that somebody extract the materials leave the mess file for bankruptcy and leave us with all the environmental damage and we have to face the consequences we have to avoid it but we need to explore every possible critical raw material source we have in Europe and do it in a European sustainable way if it comes to Mr. Ansin's and I think together with Mrs. Power they have been highlighting the importance of energy efficiency you are absolutely right energy saved is the cleanest energy we can get and therefore from the next generation we devoted such a huge volumes of financial support for energy efficiency paradoxically here the issue is not financing but permitting and labor shortage and the skills in making sure that we would have enough workers who could put the photovoltaic panels on the roof who could use and install the pumps which we need or to use all new modern technologies to make sure that we would use as little energy as necessary and to push the efficiencies to the high level Mr. Vlasak was referring to the security of supply indeed now I think we see that we need every single source of energy therefore the respect for energy mix to be a sovereign decision of every member state it's not only in Schreit in the treaties but it's exercised by all governments and I think it was also reflected in our taxonomy decisions and we need to make sure that we would use all of carbon energy sources we can get because not only climate change but also the weaponization of energy supplies is very much present in our period unfortunately to Mr. Freig if it comes to Switzerland indeed here our interest is very clear we want to have the best possible relationship with Switzerland Switzerland is a country which has the same value-based system it's in the heart of Europe and we just need to resolve the structural issues which have been kind of accumulating over the last few years we want to make sure that if it comes to the EU law which is applicable to the single market that it will be uniformly applied that there will be understanding that if the law upgrades should be dynamically aligned everywhere that we should develop the dispute settlement mechanisms if we do not understand each other it's very clear legal pathways how to resolve it and of course in these days where we see that a lot of industries because of the crisis we went through being very much relying upon the state aid we have to have also good understanding how the state aid mechanisms are working all over Europe and then of course contribution to the cohesion of the European Union is also a very important aspect for us we are talking about all these issues we are having a number of exploratory talks we hope that at the end of these exploratory talks we will have a very good understanding on both sides what is achievable and once there will be this critical mass of understanding on the table I hope we can relaunch our negotiations and I agree with you that the best thing would be to use this year because next year will be year of transition and I think that we should constantly date the European political and economic space and work with our friends as closely as possible Mr. Speich was referring to the Foresight Fit for Future platform Reg Hub contribution extremely welcome and they are very very helpful in our policy making in our legislative work and I think that we can do more indeed in Foresight area and you can help us as you did in the past with your approach what we can do to accelerate the permitting for renewables for strategic projects what we can do together to make sure that it will not take us years and years and years to get the permit because this is one of the issues which is which might push investments in other direction and we need investments in Europe in your municipalities in your cities in your regions and we need to do it in a joint in a joint in a joint way I think that Mr. Klysovich Mr. Trinka Mrs. Spauber they've been referring to the high energy prices to the energy mix and I agree with you that the fact that we had the system which was working for years quite well were to put it in a simple terms the price of electricity was calculated like twice the price of gas plus the cost of emission allowance and we pushed electricity prices through the roof last year and therefore we realized that also our energy mix is totally different than it was many years ago I mean we have much stronger proportion of renewables we have a stronger proportion of low carbon energy in our mix and therefore we are fully conscious that we need to develop new rules for trading of electricity to make sure that prices would be lower would be acceptable for our population for our businesses and we will be coming with new proposals in the first quarter in the first quarter of this year if you allow me to conclude in Slovak I would like to thank Mr. Trinka and also I would like to thank Mr. Trinka and also I would like to thank Mr. Trinka and also I would like to thank Mr. Trinka Mr. Trinka Mr. Trinka Mr. Trinka they are not only a water strategy where they actually play despite the importance of the role they are the first in this effort and in this direction this very modern response of the economy but also for the role which they played similarly as all border borders with Ukraine where they were the first to have to react to the escape of the Ukrainian wave and that it was managed with such a combination and with such positive results also from the Russian I thank Mr. Mr. President back to English once again thank you very much for your kind of thinking for having the opportunity to address you such a busy day in Brussels for hearing your supportive messages appreciating our close cooperation and I can only tell you that my colleagues Committee of Regions are looking forward to our even closer cooperation. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We're the ones who thank you for in such a busy day for taking the time to be with us and to share your views in such important issues like the Commission work program and all the related aspects that were mentioned during this debate. Please believe that the Committee of the Regions is ready and eager to strengthen the cooperation at all levels with the European Commission and of course with you in specifics. Because we think we can bring added value to the work that the European Commission does to the European project as a whole. Not only with our insights, what comes from the regional and local experience, but also to bring the work of the European Commission and Europe to the local and regional communities that we all serve. Sir, thank you so much for taking the time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.