 Now, I welcome our guest of honor, Dubravka Swice, Vice President for Democracy and Demography of the European Commission. Our colleague Tanya Ristova, Chair of the SEDEC Commission, are already here in the podium. And this debate is about this initiative, and especially about the roots of one of the main challenges that regions all across Europe have. That's to have people there, to retain talent, to have the opportunity to have people that are in all regions, and a possibility to make them a part of progress and development. Now, the way our debate is organized is we will have initial remarks by Vice President Sweetsha. We'll have then the floor to our chair, Ristova. We will have from political groups. Our first Vice President will also have a statement. I know that we have a lot of requests for the floor, but unfortunately, Madam Vice President, we are aware that you need to... Okay, so Madam Vice President has to live at 4.15. Let's hope we have the chance to have everybody and then to have your final remarks. If not, when Madam Vice President is set to leave, we'll give her the opportunity to address in final remarks, and then, if you wish, we'll continue with the debate. Madam Vice President, it's my pleasure and honor to give you the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you, President. Good afternoon, dear ladies and gentlemen, dear members of this committee. Thank you for the invitation to join you today. You know that I always like to come here. It's always pleasure to meet with you, to exchange ideas on how to ensure that our policies are targeted to the needs of citizens right where it is needed. This helps to increase the trust in our democracy and trust in democratic institutions that are designed to serve citizens, and I do not have to mention the many challenges faced by democracy today at all levels of governance. With that in mind, I'm proud to present to you today our recent communication on harnessing talent in European regions. As you know, the communication was adopted in January, together with the second edition of our report on impact of demographic change. It is not the main focus of our discussion today, but I want to start with a few words on the new demographic change report. It is significant that this communication on harnessing talent would not have happened if we had not seen evidence of demographic change, indeed, rather acute demographic change. We see it happening right across the European Union. This change is having a wide range of effects on a considerable number of our regions. The report provides all levels of governance with a much-needed, wider demographic context. Armed with this knowledge, the report will help to make our policymaking more robust and targeted. This is one of the reasons why the communication builds on this report, because it takes demographic change as a point of departure. You will remember that we originally intended this communication to be about brain drain. This is term used in my mission letter, but I have to be honest with you. It took us some time to be able to rightly capture this experience of brain drain. It took us some time to correctly identify regions most affected, and how they were being affected by this loss of skilled people, a loss that seriously threatens their long-term prosperity. We call this a talent development trap. It occurs in regions with insufficient skilled workers and university graduates to offset the impact of demographic change. This communication identifies 82 affected regions in 16 member states. We are talking about 30 percent of the population of the European Union. Can we divide these 82 regions into two categories? I hope that you cannot see them on the map. Yes, you can. So I hope that you can see them on the map behind me, represented in two colors, the red and the yellow. The first red group is a group of 46 regions that are already affected by this talent development trap. They face a rapid decline of their working-age population and a low share of university graduates. This makes it difficult for these regions to innovate and improve their productivity. These 46 regions of the red group account for 16 percent of the population of the European Union. Most of them are less economically developed than the rest of the European Union. Around 30 percent of their population lives in rural areas. The second yellow group is a group of 36 regions that run a serious risk of falling into a talent development trap. This is because they are acutely affected by the loss of their younger population, particularly those aged 15 to 34 years old. And what is the result? It means these regions will not have the necessary skills to ensure the economic and social development. This group accounts for 13 percent of the population of the European Union. This means that in all we are talking about, almost one-third of the population of the European Union. Both groups face common structural challenges. For example, inefficiencies in their labor market or further inefficiencies in their training and adult learning system. They face low performance in the areas of innovation, public governance and business development. And they typically face low access to services. This communication also provides examples of regions dealing with the loss of talent and brain drain. This sharing of experiences is very important. It will be further developed through a specific tool called the talent booster mechanism. It is designed to create a structured sharing of good practices. The beauty of this unique tool is that strategies can be tailored to the situation on the ground adjusted to take local characteristics into account. The purpose of the talent booster mechanism and its eight pillars that you can see on the slide is to very help unleash the talents of these regions in a very concrete manner. The idea is to support the regions in training, retaining and attracting the people, the skills and the competencies needed to address the impact of the demographic transition. The first three pillars concern direct technical support. Ambition is to launch before summer the calls for the pilot project that will assist around ten regions in a talent development trap to elaborate comprehensive strategies to attract and retain talents. Additionally, and with the same timing, we will also launch the new initiative on smart adaptation of regions to demographic changes in cooperation with OECD. This will help regions to develop new approaches to the demographic transition and to initiate structural reforms. And finally, the third pillar is about tailor-made technical expertise to design and implement reforms that will be offered via the 2023 call for proposals of the technical support instrument. The fourth and fifth pillars concern the financial assistance and are all about mobilizing cohesion policy through its 2021-2027 shared management programs to help regions to enhance their attractiveness for talents. The last three pillars concern the dissemination of knowledge and the analytical work. For now, I want to say that when drafting this communication, we discovered how difficult it was with the data that we had to capture the experience of brain drain that we were looking into. It is becoming increasingly clear that the capacity needs to be developed at European level to gather and assess data and expertise in order to provide guidance on the appropriate solutions. When I say capacity, I mean a structure, I mean a body at European level which will be dealing with this phenomenon. I want to say a few words on the MFF midterm review. It is not yet time to discuss the content, but it is already clear that emerging financing needs stemming from recent unexpected events in Ukraine and with energy are putting the European Union budget under pressure. And it is also increasingly clear that demographic change underpins the different transitions we are going through and that it needs to be factored in our policy and budgetary reflections. The challenges faced by the regions identified in this communication must be addressed through a robust set of investments, reforms and place-based strategies. These are detailed in the communication together with a set of successful regional examples. The midterm review of cohesion policy programs, not of the MFF, is scheduled for 2025 and will be steered in the 2024 European semester. It provides an excellent opportunity for the regions concerned to adapt their programs to meet demographic challenges. I urge this committee to encourage these regions to take up the opportunities that are being provided. Dear ladies and gentlemen, Europe has got talent. And it is vital that we nurture this talent because this is crucial to our efforts to ensure our competitiveness. This is increasingly important given the demographic transition in the European Union which we are going through. With all the challenges and the opportunities it presents, even the European Council in February has acknowledged that we have problems with demography and demographic challenges in its conclusions from the 9th of February. The communication on harnessing talent in Europe and its talent booster mechanism marked the start of our initiatives under the European Year of Skills. It will be formally launched in May, but we cannot wait until May to deliver for citizens where and when they lead it most. Addressing demographic change is key to building a fairer and more resilient society. With this communication, we come with a new category of regions facing demographic challenges. We also come with fresh money. We come with the new talent booster mechanism. It is solid. It delivers where it is needed. And the time is ripe or mature to act on it. It is now up to you in the regions to take full advantage of all the new initiatives this communication offers. We cannot deliver without the support of you, without the support of regions. You are our key partner in helping us to translate the policy efforts into realities on the ground. For this, I want to thank you in advance and look forward to hearing your views. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Now, our Chair, Tanya Ristova, you have the floor for four minutes. Thank you, President, dear Commissioner Switzer, dear members of the European Committee of the Regions, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to begin saying that we welcome the European Commission of Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe's regions and underline that the Committee of the Regions supports the overall objective of the proposal with particular regard to the prevention of disparities and geographical divide between regions and cities. The Committee of the Regions Resolution on Harnessing Talent in Europe to be adopted tomorrow recognizes the need for cities and regions to very swiftly capitalize on the potential of their dedicated strategies in order to create talent attraction ecosystems that are tailor-made and place-based. This is particularly relevant for regions that are falling into a talent development trap and particularly affected by low birth rates, a decline in the working age population, a low share of university and higher education graduates, and brain drain. In my capacity as Chair of the SEDC Commission, I would like to underline that the Committee of the Regions will engage local and regional governments to take the advantage of the European era of skills when implementing their strategies for attracting and retaining talents in our territories. I would like to highlight our great expectations for rapid and effective implementation of the eighth proposals of the talent booster mechanism at European, regional and local level. The Committee of the Regions considers regions specifically affected by the green and digital transitions, such as coal and carbon-intensive regions, as well as the automotive regions, to be the prime candidates for the talent booster mechanism, as they will obviously have significant number of workers in need of upskilling and re-skilling. From practical experience, we all know that economic and social development at local and regional level has the better chance for succeeding when it is operating in a decentralized system, and this is not only because at the local level we are closest to citizens, but also because at that level we can have better consideration of the economic and social specificity of our regions. As already mentioned, the policy response should encompass a comprehensive set of measures elaborated and implemented through place-based approaches tailored to local specificities tiered by the cohesion policy and complemented by sectoral strategies. I would like to mention two very important aspects, and these are brain drain and demographic changes, as already mentioned by in the previous moments. The loss of a young and educated workforce is a huge challenge for local communities throughout the whole European Union, and brain drain and related phenomena needs to be understood and assessed in the European Union in the context of the multi-level governments. Local and regional authorities can set local alliances which they will involve with stakeholders and contribute to the design and implementation of local policy that help to mitigate brain drain issues. In the long term, any change or transition to a sustainable and competitive economic model which is based on the knowledge economy would seem very difficult to be achieved if the scenario where disparities between regions and are widening. Therefore, the Committee of the Regions wants to see local and regional authorities recognized as strategic partners in the design, implementation and monitoring of the relevant strategies. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much. Now we go to political groups. Member Bach, you have the floor for four minutes. Mr President, dear commissioners, first of all I would like to congratulate you and the European Commission for your concrete response to the problems related to shrinking working-age population and brain drain. The talent booster mechanism announced by the European Commission is very welcome and urgently needs to be implemented. Why? Currently, in a way or in another, 82 regions in 16 member states accounting for almost 30 percent of the population of the EU are affected by the brain drain and by its negative impact. If left unaddressed, the brain drain may affect the long-term sustainability of the European project and even may affect the future of the European Union as a union. Why? Because a sharp working-age population decline in combination with a phenomenon of brain drain leads to poverty and increased territorial disparities in many regions of the European Union. It is clear if left unaddressed, the phenomenon of brain drain will feed the extremists, the populists, and it would result in a growing number of people and communities feeling left behind. So what do we need to acknowledge? First, is to recognize that we have a problem and here it's a good beginning, a good start to move forward. Second, we have to acknowledge the importance of the freedom of movement in the European Union and under no circumstances should we question the freedom of movement which represents one of the greatest achievements of our union and if I may say so, it's a religion in the European Union. But third, should be crystal clear, everyone is free to move voluntary inside of the European Union but no one should be forced to leave the country due to the poverty and other economical reasons. So what do we need to do now in order to diminish the negative impact of the brain drain and shrinking working-age population? First, to improve economic conditions, jobs, salaries, and opportunities in all those regions. One of the primary reasons people leave their home countries is to seek better economical conditions. Second, to invest in education and encourage entrepreneurship. Third, quality of life and improve work-life balance. Fourth, capitalizing on the huge potential offered by the rural area and supporting projects related to urban rural hub and smart villages. The rural area make up 80 percent of the territory of the EU and are home to 70 percent of the EU population. Rural regions are particularly exposed to the twin impact of demographic decline and insufficient talent development. Dear Commissioner Schwitza, we ask for urgent and concrete measures on the ground in order to diminish the brain drain, shrinking working-age population, and to support harnessing talents in the European Union. For that, we need a strong task force coordinated by you, by Commissioner Ferriera and Commissioner Schmidt, and together with the local and regional authorities to act with very concrete measures to improve the present situation. We ask that these concrete measures to be financed with direct financial assistance provided under existing instruments and based on eight pillars mechanisms which you just described. We ask for post-2027 cohesion policy to include specific EU-level regional targeting and earmarking for harnessing talents in the EU. And last but not least, the spirit of cohesion and harnessing talents in Europe's regions should be embedded in every policy of the European Union. And of course, we want that harnessing talents to be treated not just as a technicality in European, but as a political priority. Thank you. Before moving forward, I would like to ask all members, President Derum, to reduce as much as possible the talk beside the interventions, because it's not clear that we can hear if there is no silence in the room. So I ask you, I ask you that. Member Rosa Balastores, you have the floor for four minutes. Thank you. Thank you very much, President. Madam Vice President, on behalf of the Socialist Group, I would like to first of all express our thanks for the very complete work done by the European Commission to identify the challenges facing the regions of the EU when it comes to attracting and retaining talent amongst qualified workers. The so-called talent development trap does undermine territorial social and economic cohesion. Connectivity and industrialisation of regions are key factors to change this situation. We would therefore call on the Commission to address regional disparities through a reforced cohesion policy. Madam Vice President, the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the consequent energy crisis, all of these without any doubt have increased the vulnerability all of us feel, particularly young people. And as politicians at different levels, regional, local, we have the responsibility of setting the necessary conditions whereby we can offer stability but also hope to the youngest. Only if we manage to show solidarity and provide new opportunities can we change our shared future. Retaining and attracting talent without a doubt is vital, and for that we need new economic models of investment, which will create jobs. So that people have sufficiently high salaries and decent housing, two key factors for developing a proper project. And I think actually, if I apply this to my region, Extremadura, the green transition, the digital transition, without a doubt together, will make it possible to create new skilled jobs in Extremadura. We're going to see for the first time a synthetic diamond factory opening for semiconductors and also super condensers and a giga electric battery factory will all open. Now, all of this is partly financed through the Recovery and Resilience Facility and that will provide new opportunities, new skilled jobs. This year is the year of skills. It's the year to take into account just how important it is for us to skill, reskill and upskill and for us to attract the necessary investment in universities and also to provide guidance at university level, guiding people towards the new jobs that are being developed where we don't have enough people working yet. So there are all of these new opportunities. We shouldn't look just at universities, of course, but also the importance of vocational training and sandwich courses. So we really need all of these options to provide our companies with the workers that they'll need in Extremadura. They're going to need 20,000 to 30,000 new skilled people over the next few years. Finally, you mentioned something that's extremely important when it comes to developing new economic and social models in regions, which is the new European Bauhaus. And that is something that we have to work on and deal with this at a cross-border level. That's what we've been doing in Extremadura where we've been working very closely with our dear neighbour Portugal. Thank you. The floor goes to member Yasna Gabrić for three minutes. Thank you to the chairman, Mr. Szuicja and dear colleagues. I, the gravitation of great urban... Commissioner, colleagues, president, development... It's very important, therefore, that we develop talent. And we've done our utmost to retain young people in our regions and to create new jobs. Fortunately, we have a good high-tech company which has decided to establish itself in our area and to get there with this company. We've tried to find solutions to this problem. We've tried to find solutions to this problem. We've tried to find solutions to this problem. We've tried to find solutions to this problem. We've tried to find solutions to this company. We've tried to find solutions to this company. We've tried to find solutions to create jobs and to retain young people in our region. And I hope that soon, also with the help of the JTF mechanism, we'll be able to build those jobs in our region at the micro level that we can do a lot to ensure that we retain people in our regions, including regions which do not contain large cities. Together with the EU, we can be successful in building new jobs, creating new jobs. And if we're lucky, we'll be able to create a city within the city, partly through these high-tech companies and expertise. But also, we need new schools, new training, schools, kindergartens, and high-quality housing as well in our areas and regions. We need to look at why people are leaving certain areas. People like living in rural areas, but you also need jobs in those areas to retain people. You need good internet connection, good services, local services, and a cultural offering, all of which are part of a good quality of life. Above all, for the younger generations, we want to recruit and retain new young people. We need a comprehensive offering, economic, digital cohesion, need to be in the focal points, and local and regional authorities need to work together with you, together with the EU to ensure this, to take the right steps in the right direction, to make sure that our rural areas are not emptied of people. Thank you. I've just received a message from technical assistants saying that it's better if we could speak seated because image and sound is better calibrated for interventions from each one seat. So leave this to your consideration. The floor goes to our colleague Anna Magyar for two and a half minutes. Dear Commissioner, the EU's population growth has slowed down in recent decades. Until year 2030, EU countries are likely to be affected the population decline. Concerning the population of regions, two of the most worrying trends in need of urgent action are demographic decline and brain drain. Demographic decline results in a continuously decreasing workforce and economic stagnation. The aging of populations also places an increased strain on pensions, low health care and so on. Brain drain has led to regions losing local talented young people. They are leaving due to a lack of opportunities and opportunities are declining because young people are leaving. This leads to a slow emptying of regions. Ladies and gentlemen, we are all here to defend the interests of regions, but we have to act swiftly because we are running out of time We welcome the initiative on harnessing talented regions. The EU must step up to support regions in keeping their workforce. The skilling and upskilling are crucial to help workers develop the skills needed to remain competitive during times of a green and digital transition. Boosting digital transition of regions will be essential. Digital infrastructure ensures that teleworking, e-services and digital education are accessible to everyone in regions, even in rural areas. Digital cohesion is a tool of interoperability of regions in the long run. We encourage local and regional authorities to conduct horizontal dialogue with each other concerning local best practices in tackling brain drain and demographic decline. Last but not least, our ECR group strongly supports the investment in family-friendly policies that have proven to be very successful in the past and will help us to ensure that our youth can start a family without being forced to leave their homeland. Ladies and gentlemen, please remember that the COR has accepted an opinion in year 2020 about demographic challenges. One of the statements was about how to decrease the fertility gap. The opinion expressed that the most important task in the EU is to support families in order to be able to grow up children. I am sure this will bring a brighter future in our regions. Thank you. And here now the floor goes to Member McCarthy. You have the floor for two minutes. Yeah, I can mark this up. Thank you, President. I want to start in English. Or Irish, rather. Thank you, Commissioner, for your speech today. I come from Cork City in Ireland, and it's quite a good city in terms of attracting talent and investment, but at the same time, just to give you an example of what's happening, there's quite a lot of young people in their 20s who have higher level education, who are leaving Ireland and who are going to third countries like the United States. Recently, the Eighth Report on Cohesion on Regional and Social Policy stated that it is expected that half of all union citizens will be living in regions whose population is shrinking, so it doesn't really matter where our regions are located. Now, we are all swimming against the tide, and we all need to face up these problems together. Commissioner, I authored the Committee of the Region's Opinion on Small Urban Areas as key actors to manage just transition. The Small Urban Areas are home to 43% of the EU populations, so areas fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. And I think any solution to the demographic problem entails not only engaging them, but actually a complex set of measures spanning across a number of policy areas, and that's why I welcome your graph here today. But I think we cannot repeat enough how much we need essential public services, and that includes high-speed internet connectivity, decent transport networks, health care education to be recognised, and provided as a basic need in rural areas and small towns. And all other sexual policies will prove to be ineffective without those foundations in place. We fully support the initiatives proposed underneath the talent booster mechanism, and fully support your inclusion of one-stop shops. And yes, I agree with you. Europe has got talent, but many smaller municipalities just don't have administration capacity to stay on top of opportunities. Would that be New European Bauhaus or cross-border cooperation that are struggling to avail of some of the opportunities? So partnerships and cooperation with neighbouring areas, both rural areas and bigger cities and regions, are key. Thank you. And certainly we can support your steps as you presented here this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Tine Radindia for two minutes. Thank you, Chair. When speaking about harnessing the talent in the European region, we would just like to add something else to the debate that is already ongoing. Three points. One, some new regions are in greater risk due to environmental damage that was done through decades, and an even greater need of green and digital transition, like coal and carbon-intensive regions, and therefore need targeted policies to support talent transitions in these regions. Unprecedented number of citizens will need upskilling and risk-killing. Two, we on local and regional level should fully use the opportunities that European Year of Skills is bringing and start with the implementation of the strategies now to manage the talent that there is successfully. The most important focus of European Year of Skills is to promote skills and policies and social investments to address labour shortages for a better skilled workforce for the green future. Youth organizations should also be closely involved in the spirit of youth mainstreaming and the legacy of European Year of Youth, which connects greatly with the European Year of Skills. One of the common points, and that's my point number three, is that the common point between the two years is the call for more and more quality in education and training. We are expecting that education and training is equally accessible all across Europe and the barriers are removed. Next to it, we stress the importance that other knowledge centres such as community centres, youth centres, libraries, and local info points, artificial intelligence automation of existing models of production is a reality. It's here. Hence, lifelong learning opportunities should be a reality for every citizens that wish to redevelop his or her talents. Thank you. Thank you. First Vice President Sici Costas, you have the floor for three minutes. Thank you, Mr. President, dear Vice President Suica. The European Year 2023 is indeed dedicated to the development of skills and rightfully so. The European Committee of Regents fully supports it. As our objective is to strengthen territorial resilience in order to allow citizens to choose where to live and where to work despite the economic, the social, or the territorial handicaps that their own regions may suffer from. But this exercise, Vice President, cannot be completed in one year, in particular when the reasons of their handicaps are natural or endemic. This is particular true, for instance, for the over 70 million Europeans living in islands or the quarter of the EU population that live in rural areas. They all struggle to compete under the same rules within the single market, which should be a level play field. Unfortunately, for many, this is not the case. So the talent booster mechanism is indeed welcome, as it can contribute to tackle a number of issues they need to face, such as the brain drain or the demographic transition. What we need is to help young people who want to live and work in their own regions. And how can we do that? But by offering to them a way to maximize their own talents. This is urgent now, also because insufficient skilled workers need to offset the impact of the democratic transition. So I would like to make a call to all of our colleagues, in particular those coming from regions affected by green and digital transitions, to put forward their candidatures to test this new mechanism in its pilot phase this year. Your active role will indeed encourage skilled people of our regions to choose to remain there. Dear Vice President, we need increasing both the demand for talent by encouraging more dynamic and diverse economic opportunities and the talent supply via tailored training schemes minoring the local labor needs. We also need to promote life outside the densely populated cities, for instance by boosting remote working, which means 4G and 5G connection in rural areas. From the COR, we will continue helping you in monitoring the green and digital reforms implementation and in enhancing the skills anticipation. This can be done by developing territorial indicators. Indeed, we believe that the territorial proofing could help you for better capturing the reasons of the shrinking labor force, why some regions suffer from low share or higher education and the motivations behind the departure of young people, which are the main issues at the very core of your initiatives. And we will do this with a view to leave one, no one behind, no place behind. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to member Francisco Gonzalez Gonzalez for one minute. Thank you very much, President, dear Vice President. Talent is fundamental for the rural world to still continue to exist. The Rioja government therefore at the end of 2021 set up a group made of 30 young people who'd volunteered aged between 18 and 30 years of age, 15 men, 15 women, the so-called G30. And we asked them if young people are the future of the community, why don't we try and imagine a rural Rioja of the future that young people can lead? It's a unique project in the region, designing strategic proposals and proposals of social innovation to address the demographic challenges. The idea is to ensure that people remain in the area, provide professional and personal opportunities in the rural areas, try to come up with imaginative options for access to housing and try to make sure that people carry on living in the countryside. I'll record only one minute. Vice President Suica, dear colleagues, brain drain has become an increasingly pressing issue for regions in the past decades. Another lesser discussed aspect is that brain drain also exacerbates urbanization, therefore the problems of big cities. Air, water and noise pollution all cause health risks. Traffic congestion and overcrowding can lead to loss of quality of life and access to resources. Increased competition for housing and resources often leads to socioeconomic divisions and in many cases, homelessness. As we saw during COVID, the largest cities are more vulnerable to pandemic. People are realizing that urbanization, while practical for many, is an unsustainable long-term. Addressing brain drain, we can hit two birds with one stone. By helping regions regain their strength, we can also help eliminate the adverse effects of increasing urbanization on cities and the environment. Thank you. Member Putsu, one minute. Microphone. Thank you, President. Marque in Italy is one of the 46 regions which already has fallen into the trap, the talent development trap. And there are many others that risk having the risk of this happening. Le Marque is made up of lots of very small communes, made up of 5,000, 7,000 and 8,000 inhabitants. To actually escape this trap, we need to work on attracting tourists, but economic investment too. Regional programs so that we are seen as a transitional region and we can actually use all the options open to us. Thank you to the Commission for the talent booster mechanism. We've received funding under the European Year of Youth and now we have to also look at attracting talent. And we need a policy that's based on regions and regionalization to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Now, Member Bruno Ranic, one minute. Dear colleagues, I represent a region in Croatia, which is currently one of the most advanced regions in Croatia. We have 13 centers of excellence and most of them are concentrated on higher education. We are currently very busy discussing the higher education. However, nobody among us has posed a question about vocational education. This is precisely the area where we are experiencing lack of workforce. And we know that plumbers and electricians and masons are occupations without which we cannot go on living. We know that all the programs on the European level will also need workforces with high school education. We, as regional leaders... One minute. Frau Vizepräsidentin, Herr Präsident, Kolleginnen und Kollegen. Chair, from our point of view, we think there are a lot of positive approaches in the Commission's communication for developing skills. And we want to strengthen this in Berlin as well. We're having a conference in the framework of the European Year of Skills. So we're talking here about strengthening skills, particularly in regards to the digital and green transitions where there will be many jobs in the future. So we want to gather as many experiences as possible. We want to look at good, fair jobs, well-paid jobs, which can be created in these areas and which are also available to those, perhaps with specific needs, people with disabilities, et cetera, as well. So we want to bring in as many experiences as possible. We want to make sure that refugees have access to this as well so that we can harness their talent as well. And finally, we want to get the experience of young people as well, particularly those who have difficulties accessing the labor market. Thank you. Please, Ovech, one minute. Thank you. Commissioner and I come from the same country. And unfortunately, our country experiences accelerated population decline and brain drain. In the last three decades, we lost more than a million people. That's why talent management policies, coupled with demographic and cohesion policies, are among the most important policies for Croatia. But there is no point in investing in talent development if your talents once equipped with knowledge and skills leave your country. And you lose then twice. You lose time, money, and effort invested in your talents and you lose your talents themselves. On the other hand, country to which they go benefits twice. Therefore, we are highly exposed to talent development trap. For these reasons, I welcome talent booster mechanisms in conjunction with stronger cohesion policy. The goal of retaining talent in our countries go hand in hand with increasing development disparity among member states and European regions. That is the only way to slow down brain drain and raise the resilience of affected countries and regions. Thank you. Member Schwartzkiefer, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much. We're talking about regions that return very difficult regions. And I feel particularly called upon to speak on these regards because I can see these things in my own home and I can see how difficult it is to find a way out of these difficulties. In many cases, these regions are left alone because in recent decades, central governments have left them behind. In Hungary, for example, we see that there might be a potential solution at the moment working together with local and regional authorities as well. So what could the commission do? Well, it can take into account the development of these regions in their strategies and making sure that the LRAs get more money as well. We think that this could solve the problem of talent development, but also very many other problems as well. Thank you. Thank you. Member Zlatko Zivkov, one minute. Dear Vice President, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, as a mayor of a community that falls within the talent development trap, I have no choice but to support the general objectives that aim to tackle the issues concerning the decrease of population of working age. In my community, one of the main objectives is to support young families and vocational education in order to retain future workers in our city. In Montana, we are now experiencing a huge demand for skilled workers. In order to deal with these issues, we need education. We need a greater potential in public governance and an increased access to services. And we also need a better quality of life and standard of living. Thank you. Dear Commissioner, I want to welcome the proposal of commission concerning talent booster mechanism, but I must draw your attention towards one of the most impactful LRAs in matters related to the labor force in Europe concerning the automotive industry transition. Building on my report on mobility transformation and its corollary just transition, my first recommendation is to directly correlate the vocational training efforts with ample investments at the local and regional level. I must also note that the small urban and the big urban areas will be mostly hitting this transformative process. Without investment that require and guide professional reconversion, there is a risk that the new qualification will not meet the labor market requirements because they are not fitting as such or because they are fitting in another geographical area. In this last case, we have to bear in mind that for objective reasons, the internal geographic mobility of the labor force in Eastern Europe and member states is very low while the migration abroad represents a viable option for a mass part of the population. Thank you. Let's not make the green transition another booster from East to West migration. Thank you. Member Raveem Stren, you have the floor for one minute. Dear commissioner, dear president, ladies and gentlemen, I very much appreciate talent booster mechanism. I very much appreciate co-resolution mentioning so many times rural areas. We do have nice strategies. We do have nice visions. We do have nice policies. We do have nice tools and we do have nice discussions like today one. But as a proud rural citizen, I strongly feel we do miss real action. We need to use all the policies, tools, holistically in synergies. We need to bring quality of life and opportunities into those regions. For example, using modern technologies and we need to talk especially to young talented people living those regions not to think on their behalf. I do that. I do talk to young people in my region. I do talk to young people in European youth rural parliament and other bodies. Let's act together on all levels to stop brain drain and bring talented people to all EU regions. Member Calbecki, one minute. Mrs. Commissioner, Mr. President. Commissioner President, I would like to thank for your proposal. This is a very important tool that will enable us to retain talent in our regions, especially in regions threatened by depopulation. We have some tools. We have our cohesion policy. We have newer perspective. The community led groups and here we can stop this phenomenon. I would like to invite you to Torun during our not commit commission meeting. We will present a rural farm and we will meet the local community, young people and we will discuss how to develop strategies in order to be able to positively impact the current situation. Thank you. Rady, one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Commissioner President. Thank you. Vocational training is vital to increase the competitiveness of our companies through development of the quality of talent and skills. In Mercia, we are working hard on, in fact, increasing the offer and supply of training qualifications, increasing the number of places available by 39,000. That provides opportunities for our young people and people who want to continue their training throughout their lives. We also feel that vocational training, professional training is also a key tool for combating early school leaving, which is a key challenge for Mercia and we're promoting basic vocational training and that the take up of this in Mercia is increasing on a yearly basis. We're trying to keep pupils who are at risk of early school leaving in the system. We also think it's vital to pay particular attention to people that have difficulties in developing the education and training they need. Thank you. Mr. Androvich, one minute. Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to welcome the report by the European Commission. And I would also like to say that the demographic development and the measures towards greater attraction of young people are of great importance. It is very important to ask ourselves how we can offer new jobs to talented young people. You, Madam Vice President, have visited Virovitica and our incubator that has in the meantime expanded in many other areas. We are very busy supporting young people and young talents in many different areas. So we have almost no vacancies in our programs. We have managed to increase the number of newly established companies. Member Turk, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much. Of course, we definitely support this resolution. I think it is quite clear that the regions that have been affected by the green digital transition more than others, definitely in a position where they need more help than others. There are many workers that need reskilling and upskilling. And in such a situation, the cohesion policy and the transitional fund are very important. In Croatia, I think a very good example is the CISAC and Moslavina County. This used to be a carbon-heavy region. However, they have oriented their development towards green technologies and gaming industry. And this was done thanks to the European funds. And allow me one more thing. Maybe it is now time for additional capacity building at the level of the European Union so that we could allow young people to be in the focus of our attention. Just one minute. President, colleagues, the government of Cantabria has a regional strategy faced with the demographic challenge of fighting depopulation, running from 2021 to 2027, trying to keep people in the autonomous community of Cantabria, changing the current dynamic. And then again also, Cantabria is taking part in an OECD project, which is the Strategic Governance Plan for rural depopulation, together with four Spanish autonomous communities. And we would like to congratulate the Commission on the communication and the talent booster mechanism, which will provide support for the 82 EU regions most affected by brain drain, which Cantabria is not one of them, but nonetheless, there is no doubt if we do nothing, other regions like mine will in the future also run the same risk of losing skilled people with a low level of university graduates or higher education graduates, or negative demography when it comes to people age between 19 and 30 years. So how can we help the Commission? We scoop each one minute. Microphone. I'm sorry. Dear commissioner, vice president, Svika, dear chair, Christova, dear colleagues, based on my experience from region Tarnava, Slovakia, talents are the most important building blocks of the economic growth. Due to demographic changes, extensive brain drain, but also growing effects of digital transformation, we have been struggling to ensure social progress and competitiveness of our region. This is why we have decided to invest our resources in educational and training improving skills and job performance, building on an existing strength and potential of Tarnava region. We are focusing on education up and rescuing of the workforce in our automotive sector, we say in our automotive region. For example, we are backing dual vocational education in our school, working with universities, youth organization, or various forms of interregional cooperation with automotive regions around the Europe. What is real important, I'm therefore calling the European Commission also in light of the European years of skills to continue founding the innovation skills and training. Thank you so much. Member Markoves-Lee Gash, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. It is evident that today many European regions are faced with the challenges of negative demographic at migration trends. These effects are particularly observed in the mass immigration of the younger population. We often heard about the importance of harnessing human capital, but how to harness something that is systematically slipping away. In my hometown of Pragrada in Croatia, we have supported the establishment of higher education and vocational institutions. We continuously found original youth projects and engaged their delegates in our local budget planning. We strive to continue this trend and build on it. The European year of youth and subsequently this European year of skills to iterate the importance of skills and talents for Europe's economic future. Furthermore, the European Commission's communications that we are discussing today has shaped a set of fresh tools that should help boost talent in the most vulnerable of Europe's regions. Regions should use these framers to expand and develop talents for a modern labour market. Thank you. Antonio Vicens, Vicens, one minute. Gracias, President. Gracias, Vice President. Thank you very much, President, Madam Vice President. When we talk about retaining talent, it's particularly important to refer to areas with permanent geographical disadvantages such as out of most regions. And this is provided for in the TFEU. In the case of the islands, these are especially vulnerable to rapid changes in the labour market and they experience difficulties in diversifying their economies and keeping them competitive as a whole. And if we look at the demographic challenges, we also have to bear in mind that there are populational imbalances which can be either above or below the norm. Now, this is something that should not be forgotten. In conclusion, it's more necessary than ever that we have a territorial analysis of the challenges facing our regions so as to be able to correctly address the major challenges that we have ahead of us. Thank you. Member Frankowski, one minute. Dear Mr. President, I'm going to speak Polish. I would like to pay attention to the need for system solutions and potentially strengthening. I think that we need systemic solutions and to reinforce regions and cities to make sure that they keep talent. And we also should encourage people to come back to national markets, in particular people who would like to open their startups in the most important sectors. We have to remember about the series of crises that we have, such as the pandemic or the war. This results in a situation when there are fewer and fewer talents and we need European support. In Warsaw, for example, companies cannot obtain funding for new initiatives because they have no access to payments from European policies. And to many companies, innovative companies, it will become a significant barrier. One minute. President, Frau Kommissar. President, Commissioner, skills and competences are things that are growing in our regions and communicators. There are things that are fostered in schools, kindergartens, companies, workplaces. And we need to thank all of these various different players and we need to link them all up together. That's what we need to work towards. Also, this is a year where we need to bring modern learning to the fore and foster that. We need to make sure that all kinds of different qualifications are recognized and promoted. We need to promote lifelong learning across the board in Europe that includes rural areas as well. We need to promote this in all areas, both urban and rural. And we need to make sure that skills are fostered in border regions in particular, that they take into account the specificities of border regions and that we can reach the targets that we have. And ultimately, we need to make sure that the community level is responsible for skills and driving skills. And I think that will mean the year of skills of success. One minute. Congratulations, President. First of all, I am very glad to see you all here. And I'm very glad that we are discussing our today's topic. European Union as a whole is under threat and especially the lesser developed areas. We are facing the following challenges, depopulation, migration towards the more developed countries and brain drain. One of the possible answers is most definitely an effective cohesion policy. That is why I find it very good that the Committee of Regions managed to continue supporting the cohesion policy within the multi-annual financial framework. This, however, is not sufficient. We have to go on looking for new solutions and new answers. The current war in Ukraine shows very clearly how it is important that every single member states must be able to resist such threats on its own. Microphone, please, for the speaker. It's open. Robotica yristettyne digitalisaation. Please close that microphone. Someone close the microphone. Now open you. Go ahead. It's not working. Could you change the place, please? Don't be nervous. You only have 10 seconds. I'll be quick. Thank you, Mr. President. Robotica yristettyne. Thank you, digitalization, artificial intelligence. These are essential aspects as we look to developing our economies. The models that we have are developing well on the basis of the theme that we have this year, Year of Skills. And we can very much bring this home in our European regions. In our region, we have managed to bring all of this together. Each child learns robotics, for example, at school. So all of these lessons are integrated into a number of school lessons. This is part of our daily lives, part of how we work. They also learn lots of other things, of course, students at schools, various different skills that will help them down the line when they work, developing projects, critical thinking, and research as well. They'll need all those skills in the future in Europe. Thank you. Grazie. Thank you, President. Thank you very much, Vice President Sveta, for the excellent work you're doing in the Commission, the talent booster mechanism, providing support for regions that are struck by decline in the working age population. But I think it's very relevant that this, in fact, is being presented in the European Year of Schools considering the phenomena, demographic phenomena facing our continent. We need to encourage the use of funds for programs that already exist to attract and retain talent. And on this final point, the different regions of the European Union do have to address the problem of brain drain, of young, skilled workers. Europe has everything it needs, talent, researchers, industry, or capacity, and also a good European Commission. And that's why I'm convinced that the history of the new deal of the world as it lives will be based on harnessing our skills and talents, and this is something that will be a success story. Thank you. And finally, members, Trugala, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much, indeed. I represent the lowest level of local governments, the rural areas, and indeed, as far as the infrastructure is concerned, and as far as the healthcare and all the issues that you have mentioned, culture, education, broadband, internet, indeed, it is very important, as you have mentioned, but how can we do it? You have been talking about migration, about brain drain, and I talk about young people escaping, running from those areas so that they make their lives better. So what can we do to stop this phenomenon, to enable the talents stay in the country? And I think tomorrow we're going to talk about cohesion as well. There should be one rule policy common for everybody. Thank you. And you have the floor for final remarks for four minutes. Thank you very much. After carefully listening to all of you, I'm now more than convinced that there is no better place but Committee of the Regions to discuss this topic. So thank you for this discussion. I see that you are interested and that you wanted to say more. So I'm also thankful to you for the resolution which you will adopt tomorrow. Unfortunately, I cannot refer to all of your comments, but have you tried only to react to some of your interventions? But please do not hesitate to connect to my office and to my cabinet after the meeting because if there are any details, you would want to know about this initiative in general on talent boosting mechanisms in particular. My first reaction is about the map and the regions captured under this communication. What we are addressing here is the phenomenon of brain drain. This means that we have pre-selected a timeframe, window and set specific criteria to capture these regions, to capture the phenomenon of brain drain. So departure of young people. We are not looking into population density as such at this moment. So northern sparsely populated areas, for example, will not be there or some islands like our Greek friends says because this density is determined by geography and also because sometimes the brain drain has happened a long time ago. So we are capturing here the recent flows and looking into the ways of rebranding regions and making them interesting and attractive on the EU geographical map. My second observation would be about resources, concretely funding. The talent booster mechanism heavily relies on cohesion funding and on cohesion programs. The pilots will be done with so-called fresh money from the regions because it will not be using the money from member states pre-reserved envelopes but from commissions own technical assistance. This is very important to know. But additionally, we will use the momentum of the, as I already said in my introduction, we will use the momentum of the mid-term review of the cohesion policy programs scheduled for 2025 and steered by European semester in 2024 because it will be an opportunity for the regions concerned to adapt their programs to meet demographic challenges. One element I want to clarify to conclude with is the platform we are building under the booster mechanism. It is under construction and it will be ready before summer. Its importance is critical, not only because it will be the place to exchange best practice and experience but mainly because it will be the place where we will publish all the calls for the pilots and the initiatives. So keep an eye on it and please as EU regions be ambassadors of that platform to spread the word about boosting talents. Last but not least, we should make sure that demographic change is factored into our reflections when we design our policies and our budgets because if we want our initiatives to be successful we cannot do it without taking into account demographic change which uniquely combines the territorial empowerment and the building of human capital and as such becomes a warranty for our regions to capitalize on the green and digital transitions and not to become victims of it. This is very important. And to conclude, you know that I'm holding first ever position of commissioner or vice president on demography in this commission. So it has never been in the history of this commission that we had portfolio on demography. But we did a lot, but I think it's not enough. So to do this strategically, we need to mobilize all relevant actors and layers of governance, local, regional, national and European. And in doing so, it has become clear that we need genuine demographic capacity to be developed at the European level. When I say capacity, as I already said, I mean a structure at European level or a body at European level together and assess data and expertise in order to provide guidance on the appropriate solution. It doesn't mean that we are not doing much, but it's not enough according to our opinion. So we will be striving and trying to establish a structure at European level to deal with all these problems. I hope you will have your support. Thank you for this exchange and looking forward on the working on the implementation of this communication together with all of you and hand in hand with our region. Thank you very much and all the best. Thank you, Madam Vice President. We're the ones who thank you for your time and your presentation. Thank you.