 Dear Mr. President, dear Commissioner, in dealing with the health pandemic we need all levels of government and the public to act together. On the one hand we feel the need for more international cooperation and mutual European solidarity. On the other hand we feel the need for national strengthening. Sometimes they seem opposite but this crisis proves we need both to guide us. During the crisis we all became aware of the vulnerability of our food production, of the absence of our manufacturing industry. We came aware that we can only handle this vulnerability by switching to shorter production and supply change. The Covid crisis and the transitions facing Europe are two developments which are strengthening each other. The Covid crisis strongly speeded up the transition towards working in a digital age while transitions can be used to support economic recovery. Imported in this process are innovation and learning by doing. As regions and cities are the government's closest to us, our citizens.