 President von der Leyen, thank you very much for being here with us at the presentation of our local and regional barometer today. It's a great privilege for us Europeans to know that a leader of your caliber is in charge of our union today during these very turbulent times. And I want you to know that when it comes to the Committee of the Regions, myself and all my colleagues, we are here to help. We are here to bring Europe closer to its people. And so this coalition that we are starting, that we have already started between the Committee of the Regions and the Commission shall go on. And I think that in the future when we look back to these moments of this new alliance in Europe, we will be really happy for having started this close collaboration. So thank you very much again for finding the time and investing in the Regions and the cities of the European Union. Let me please move on now and give the floor to Mr. Orgert Geblevich from the EPP. Orgert, you have the floor. Dear President von der Leyen, I warm welcome on behalf of the EPP Group in the COR. And thank you for very important words you addressed us today. President, I believe all members of this House have also listened attentively to your State of Union address. Although we were not mentioned by name, we felt addressed by ambitious list of policies. We are ready to deliver on them together with you. As I have an honor to be a President of West Pomeranian region on the Polish-German border, I have no doubts that cross-border health cooperation of which is spoke can be achieved only with the support of border regions. The data in common European health data space will be inevitably managed by local and regional authorities. The ambitious revision of energy and climate legislation needs to be climate-proof but also region-proof in order to meet the ambitious emission reduction targets not only in drafting but also in the implementation. The Green Deal will be investment strategy if the regions embrace it and receive tailored assistance with the concrete projects. We also glad to see that the next generation EU plan is in its core based on the concept of the social market economy. It puts people first. The social market economy has taken us out of the other crises during the 20th century. It is a concept deeply rooted in the central right tradition and brings together values of individual freedom, solidarity and subsidiarity. And it is subsidiarity that will make next generation EU a success. Therefore, its design should be targeted to the needs of regions. So I'm very glad that in your speech today you underlined that the national recovery and resilience plans will heal our economies only if they are drafted in close partnership with the regional and local authorities. The annual local and regional barometer which we present today comes not out of criticism but a complementing tool to fine tune the policies which you outlined. The message is clear. This crisis has affected our regions in an uneven way and therefore response should be tailored to the specificities in each one of them. After President, we are regional and local politicians and we see the scale of the COVID in the activity and in the eyes of our citizens daily. We make no illusions that recovery will be fast or painless. We know that after fear and grief of pandemic go away, the frustration of economic downturn will shake Europe. And if we don't convince citizens today that we work based on their needs, we will face a wave of your skeptic opinions tomorrow. That is why we need to base our policy choices on the hard data from regions and the barometer guide us in that. This will provide us with additional legitimacy to defend the recovery measures in difficult times. I hope that today, together with you, we are setting a milestone for the cooperation between the COR and commission and the link with our citizens. Thank you very much for your presence today. Thank you very much, Olga, the floor now to Kata Tuto from the PES. Dear President of the European Commission, I am very honored to address you on behalf of the PES group from my city, Budapest, where I serve as Deputy Mayor and I was also and still am chairing the response group for the COVID crisis. I don't want to repeat anything that has been said, but going back to the beginnings, one of the most challenging things were that we were all in the dark city leaders facing something we've never seen before without sufficient data and without experience. In these hard times, one of the biggest help was the network of cities that we could call each other. We could see all the decisions made and that we could share the experiences we had. This was the thing to hold on to and I'm really grateful for that. We had to be really quick in acting, making tough decisions on closing, lock down our cities to protect the most vulnerable, but those decisions of reopening was even harder decisions so that everybody else can stay alive. While shutting down, we were talking about cities had to work, public transport had to run, waste had to be collected and it's easy to see that you cannot drive a bus or collect trash from a home office. We cities were in the front line facing the social disaster, people losing their only income completely from one day to another and it was a lot of cities who then could introduce a basic income. We had to be quick in rethinking our public spaces, closing down spaces and opening up new safer spaces. We had to rethink mobility, rethink safety and rethink elderly care. But in this COVID crisis, a lot of new dimensions of inequalities emerged, like for homeschooling, we know a lot of people for whom it went well, but we know a lot of families for whom homeschooling was a nightmare disaster meant for a lot of children being dropped out of school for months, highlighting inequalities in access to technology, but also it meant for a lot of children cutting off the only resource, the only way to get the proper meal a day. I always have to stress that one child out of four in the European Union is today at risk of poverty. Also staying at home, it means really different situation for a family with a one-room apartment on the eighth floor and a family in a big house in a suburb. So we are calling for a European deal for housing to support local and regional authorities in financing affordable and sustainable housing. We've been talking about access to healthcare. I come from a country where we are not lacking ventilators. We have today 10 times more ventilators than we have doctors who can actually operate them. So there is a strong need for a European public health strategy to build a stronger European health union. Our president was talking about the gender, the clear gender dimension of the crisis. We usually say that poverty has a women's face and so does the COVID crisis. Women did play and we are playing an outsized role responding to the crisis. It's not just that women are the majority of the frontline workers in healthcare and nurses, but the majority of the low paid workers and the majority of people with caring responsibilities paid and unpaid. We were seeing increases in domestic abuse and there are still member states who are not implementing the convent, the Istanbul Convention, which is as important as ever. And as a Hungarian, let me address another fundamental issue which deserves to be treated with more responsibility. It's about European values and the rule of law. We agreed that there is no more room for compromise for governments when it comes to the respect of rule of law. European values are not for sale. But governments doesn't equal with its citizens. And we should not be blamed for the actions of our governments. As before, the Visegrad Four mayors were calling today Hungarian mayors, leaders of three cities are addressing the leaders of the European Union, the parliament and the commission to raise their voice for their citizens. We are calling for more directly accessible European funds to strengthen those who are in the frontline of the pandemic because stronger cities and regions are not just important when facing an economic crisis or a pandemic, but they are also these local democracies are important pillars of democracies. And there can be very important pillars of rebuilding a democracy. So thank you again for your attention and thank you for your presence today. Thank you very much, Kata. I would like to give the floor now to Ulrika Landergren from Renew Europe. First of all, I would like to thank you for the introduction of the line for taking your time to meet us at the regional committee. We are now going through the perhaps most different and strange time that no one in our generation thought we would have to be with. As a community politician in Kungsbacka, I have been able to act in several areas. In my community, we have managed to be relatively good. Sweden's biggest concern during the pandemic has been to protect our parents and our parents. And here are some conclusions. The parents that we have had well-educated people on have made it much better. Those who have had many additional appointments or hours have had much higher death rates. We must improve our staff and make sure that we have the right education level for those who are burdened by the most heard people. We have had a shortage of protective equipment. We have prioritized the health care for the elderly when there was no material access. Here we can conclude that we, both on a national and EU level, must be much better prepared for the joint labor unions and medicines and equipment. A restart from Europe is absolutely necessary and it must come as soon as possible. It is a long-term, sustainable initiative that will make Europe stronger. I will take some examples that I think will make sense for our role and where EU money can make real use of. The role of the entire forest industry. In Western Sweden, we are based on the forest industry. They have now identified great needs to change the skills of everyone. We are building new knowledge for new technologies with batteries and electricity. We will continue to transport us in a much more environmentally friendly way with electric buses, electric cars, self-driving cars. But for this, the demand for advanced development of competence is available to staff and new innovative knowledge in our universities. In Western Sweden, we are working together with the EU to make this change in breadth and at a high pace. You yourself mentioned the digital shift. It must not increase. Let us now take this fantastic event that we have had with the pandemic to let the whole Europe work together on the same scale. Our task must be to make everyone available for the new digital technology. I also want to thank the head of the funder line for the clear attitude that you have taken in the hypothetical questions. In the EU-European group, we have a large number of follow-up developments in Poland, where several municipalities and regions have taken resolutions that create a climate of discrimination and are possible to be followed by LGBTQ people. We welcome the European Commission's decision to stop the financing of the World Economic Project to these municipalities. But we want to take a step further and ensure that no EU financing should be provided by municipalities that do not share EU's basic values. My question to you as President von Leyen is, what can the European Commission do to put more pressure on these municipalities to abolish these resolutions if this does not stop the EU withdrawal to these local and regional municipalities? I would also like to thank the European Structure and Investment Funds. I would like to thank them for their support. Thank you very much, Ulrika. I would like to give the floor now to Vladislav Portil from the ECR. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, in the name of the European Group of Conservatives and Reformers, thank you very much. We have discussed important issues and decisions that we, of course, appreciate. Our group believes that the European Union must focus on two priorities. I am here to ensure safety and prosperity. There is no other important importance here. But the important thing is a universal rule that must provide us with the sovereignty of the member countries. First of all, we appreciate all the efforts that the European Commission focused on the study of science in innovations that can help with the fight against coronavirus, especially in the early stages of the pandemic. We hope that this cooperation will lead to a break and the efforts to cure the disease, of course, which would help us in this fight. But in order to prevent the crisis of the Huma-Internum, the Sinternum and also the epidemiological one, it is definitely more effective to control the migrant policy. We must remember that this uncertainty can cause us a big problem. Here, the basic answer to this migration crisis cannot be only the unification of the relocation mechanism. It is known that it will cause more and more migrants to decide whether to go to a dangerous expedition through the sea. The regions at the border will not be able to handle the security. In a region like the island of Sicily, which is under very strong immigration pressure, it must be divided into a larger financial aid. We have to try even more to secure the border. We cannot be surprised by the governor of Sicily, but we just have to support him. The second important aspect is, of course, the economy. Here we are in a situation in which the central banks increase the amount of money for a large scale, which has actually ensured the stabilization and the sense of security, but at the same time, we must remember about the rising economic costs and the costs of the residents' lives. Here, it grows rapidly. Therefore, our special attention is to return the proposal of the European Commission to the climate pact. We are afraid that it may lead to an increase in the price of energy. We appeal that there be a balance between economic and environmental matters. I think that the European Commission has a goal to fight populism. We would not like the rising costs to this populism to be introduced. Finally, I would like to appeal to the respect of the sovereignty of the countries, of course, of Chłonkowski and also the territorial authorities in the regions that are, of course, registered to us. We must reform the European Union based on the rules of sub-seriality. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Congratulations on your hard work, your energy and enthusiasm. It is true to say that you've chosen your commissioner team well and they're also instilled with such latter traits. I believe that I'm the second person from Cork in the south of Ireland to speak with you in the past two weeks, the first being Ireland's T-Shucker, Prime Minister Meehal Martin, and while he would have focused on the member state perspective, it is my firm belief that cities and regions and concepts of multi-level governance also need to be at the heart of the priorities and part of the passionate narrative and story outlined by you in your recent State of the Union address and created by you today. Many of the priorities are common challenges for over 95,000 local and regional authorities across Europe. The delivery of the commission's ambitious targets can only be achieved in collaboration with the cities and regions. We must be at the heart of the delivery process and the COR will continue to collaborate with other EU institutions in the delivery of this vision. I'll bet we do wish for our work, the opportunities that go with such work and the strong added value connected to such work to be recognized more by those who lead the European project forward. The Committee of the Regions is also part of Team Europe. We are more than just the opinions we produce. We are on the front line in building the future of Europe. We are the story builders, the capacity builders, the strategy builders. We are the builders of the lighthouses of innovation. We build ideas from scratch and bring them to life. We are more than just the sum of our parts. If you empower the regions, the EU will be a success. My own group, the European Alliance group, and continue to bring forward reasons, opinions, and policy papers and topics ranging from rural revival to the conference in the future of Europe to the fall or from the collapse through COVID or our cultural and tourism industry. And certainly, next generation EU funding is welcome to try to solve some of the latter problems as are the continued trilogues for a cohesion policy. But the CUR will lobby your hardest to get the best deal we can for local and regional authorities. So the big question, why Group House this morning, Madam Commissioner, for you is how can we ensure that you include local and regional government in actively engaging more in the delivery of the EU project? Thanks, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Kieran. Let me now give the floor to Bernd Voss from the Greens group. Yes, Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Commissioner. The corona crisis has shown very clearly how important it is that the region, the state and the community have a strong language barrier and a strong network on all levels. And from the green side, of course, we are also happy about your expectations that the national states, the regions and the communities are now participating in the next generation. The crisis is a turning point for the problems in the structure and in the system. And the imbalance of weight reaches up to the smallest units of our society up to the families. You did it very clearly. The big challenge will now be to be a quick energy transition, climate protection, our big and ultimately only economic and social perspective. The communities, the state and the regions are now setting an example. You need extremely strong backup. You therefore need more direct access to EU funds. Yes, the new climate law is in the beginning. The decisions of the EU parliament in the past week have improved significantly and we, the Greens, hope and expect that the decision of the parliament will not be weakened. The EU must strongly believe in concrete examples. This means that the impact of global trade has been regionalised in the end and must be justified. And it has been very helpful, Mrs. President, to highlight the importance of qualified external protection, for example, the carbon border tax for climate-neutral steel production in the debate, to bring out and strengthen. In terms of qualification, we need other regions and also other trade areas worldwide and also in the agrarian trade. We do not close ourselves in the eyes of the consequences of our global trade and the sustainability and the consequences of the decline. I only mention as an example the problems in the Middle Sea, Moria and at the same time we sometimes ignore in the national states the head of health, which is clearly the smallest region of our country. Strong democracy and law enforcement in one country is our basic requirement to move the region with this crisis at this time. That is why we want to take a clear step against any member states that refuse the recognition of the values of democracy and law enforcement. From the municipalities, many of them sit here at the end of the region against the national policies of everyday democracy and law enforcement. Thank you very much. I will now give the floor to some of our members who have asked to intervene. You will have the floor for one minute each. Let me start with Anders Knapper, please. Madam President, Dear colleagues, In my capacity as president of the Congress of Council of Europe, let me present to you some of the key findings and responses needed to drone to the appropriate conclusions and put in place the necessary legal and procedural measures to safeguard the capacity of act of municipalities, cities and regions and to maintain democratically this media of directions. Multi-level governance is an important key to positively respond to the crisis. When regions and local authorities we are the national associations were involved in rapid response task forces at national level, the response were more effective and reality proof. This response provide the recent transition is not a miracle cure for the crisis. All recommendations are to make sure that any emergency measures are temporary, proportional and introduced under democratic control. Better division of competencies and means within the multi-level governance system is ensured and maintained even in times of crisis and better coordination and consultation are established between different levels of governance. Sub-national authorities are involved in decision-making within emergency mechanisms as an integral part of national crisis management including or holding or postponing elections. And sub-national authorities have access to direct funding during both the crisis management and post-crisis recovery. Multi-level governance increase the quality of decision and allow greater flexibility in providing solution tailored to specific needs. Local democracy itself must be seen as a service of general interest or societies to be upheld even in the crisis for the core common values which I represent. Thank you for giving me the chance as president of the Congress of Council of Europe to address you today. Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. The floor now to Peter Kaiser for one minute please. The floor to Miss Fernandez Viania please. Estimada Presidenta de la Comisión Europea gracias estimados colegas ha quedado muy claro que también el impacto regional en la crisis ha sido muy asimétrico. Aquí por ejemplo en Cantabria una comunidad de 500.000 habitantes no ha afectado igual que en otros lugares que en otras regiones como Madrid o Cataluña. El impacto económico a medio plato diferirá entre las regiones pero es fundamental mitigar el impacto financiero en los gobiernos regionales y ayudarlos a comprometer los recursos urgentes y necesarios para ayudar a la población y a las empresas. Desde Cantabria consideramos que los gobiernos nacionales y regionales encabezaran el labor de recuperación económica incluso mediante planes de recuperación regionales y locales que probablemente incluyan el apoyo a empresas y paquetes de estímulos dirigidos a la inversión pública. Me gustaría que la Comisión Europea a la hora de evaluar los planes de recuperación que en los próximos días tengan cuenta el papel de las regiones en la salida de esta crisis y evite que este plan de recuperación pueda conducir de alguna manera a la recentralización de las políticas y de la gestión de los fondos. Muchísimas gracias. Conductor, for one minute please. Okay, so we move on to Rob Junckman please. Okay, Miss Dwayne Stanley please. You have the floor. Obviously, there are some technical issues. So I move on to Miss Swarch Keifer please. President, thank you for giving me the floor. President von der Leyen, a very warm welcome from my side. I am a member of the Flemish Parliament and our regional and local levels are doing their best in managing the COVID-19 crisis. They take own policy decisions and actions, but also they implement policy decided at other levels and governance. Due to pandemic, we face drastic reduction of incomes. Huge need to implement a number of ad hoc measures in the field of health protection and a necessity to maintain investments to support jobs and to deliver social services, especially in the rural areas. The measures to overcome the economic and social impact of the crisis must be based on the right conclusions. The initiative of few the co-president for a barometer report is a very important step as it represents the regional and local perspective of resilience and recovery. I am delighted to contribute to this process as core reporter on experiences and lessons learned by regions and cities during the COVID-19 crisis. President von der Leyen, I'm looking forward to collaborate with the Commission on this matter. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I would like to give the floor now to Mr. Mark Spice. Ms. Alexandra Dulkiewicz, please. Mr. Piero Mauro Zanin. Mr. Juan Calabuegrull. Is there a connection problem? Mr. Gunther Platter, please. You have the floor. Can you hear us? Mr. Alberto Sirio. Good morning, Mr. President von der Leyen. There are two challenges that my region, Piemonte, faced in 2021. To overcome the health emergency that has seen it among the most affected regions of Italy, but also among those that are better positioned today to counter the return of the COVID-19 pandemic. The great economic and social emergency that, for a region of industrial and manufacturing tradition, like Piemonte, means loss of jobs and productive capacity, without saying, of the cultural and tourism sector, a sector that was giving new visibility and well-being to Piemonte and that today is in danger. The second challenge concerns climate change and its effects on the territory. I would like to thank President von der Leyen for the message of closeness that, in recent days, he has wanted to convey to my region, Piemonte, on the occasion of the recent catastrophes and floods that have devastated our land and the anticipation that we will make requests, together with the Liguria, together with the regions of Pacae and Ronalp, to activate the European Solidarity Fund. Both these challenges, that of health and that of the environment, can be fought and won by Piemonte, only if the European Union does not miss its own support, with the solidarity and generosity that the spirit of European construction requires. Thank you. Thank you very much. The floor now to Gunther Platter, Ms. Sari Rausio. Dear President von der Leyen, dear President Discosas, thank you for this debate on this very important parameter. People first as a team. People first. So important to remember that none of us, no city, no region, no person can do all, but everyone can do something. We need definitely the common goal, the common objectives, but the deeds are done here in the regions, in the municipalities and cities, together with people. Dear colleagues, this definitely is the momentum for Europe. This is the time to start to work for the next generation Europe. Greener, fairer and better Europe. Who is the forerunner in the world? Dear President, I want to stress the meaning and the possibilities of digitalization. During COVID crisis in the springtime, we understood how important it is to invest in digitalization. In my city, the city of Hamelin, all the children have their iPads or computers, and the school went on fine, thanks to our professional teachers. This is something I really wish that we together would offer to all European children, no matter in which region, in which city they live. This is building the better Europe and future for all of us. Dear colleagues, I want to encourage us all to rethink and strengthen democracy and restart Europe together. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Mr. Peter Kaiser, you have the floor. Hello. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, the coronavirus crisis shows the commitment of the European Union. Limit restrictions, travel warnings, market restrictions, are only effects of national pandemic activities. An EU-enhanced approach is, in view of COVID-19, just as indispensable as with climate policy or digital transformation. And, ladies and gentlemen, yes, we will do everything to deliver projects. The local and regional sectors are important actors, because they are in immediate contact with the citizens. The crisis shows one thing very clearly. Europe works, above all, when its regions are strong. Education, health or data science care are essential indicators for this. I can also tell you from the core of the country that, ladies and gentlemen, in a region that is limited to Italy and Slovenia, we are able to maintain the crisis in the core of the country until today, because with our neighbouring regions, we are able to cross the border in an intense exchange. We will need European programs, such as Next Generation Europe and also in the big, but also in the regional and local sectors. Then and only then will it work well and maybe we will get out of this crisis stronger. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. The floor now to Rob Jonkman, please. Rob Jonkman. Thank you very much, Chair. Now it's working, I think. Dear Madam President von der Leyen, results of a survey accompanying the barometer show that local government is the most trusted level of government in Europe and that Europeans expect greater involvement of local politicians in shaping European politics. The institution in which we meet today is the voice of the regions in the EU and our democratic credibility and influence on the ground no one can question. And you didn't when I hear your inspiring speech. Having this in mind, I and many other members struggle to understand why the annual budget of the Committee of the Regions is significantly smaller than of the European Economic and Social Committee. Both committees have consultative roles and we occupy the same building. Yet the COR, whose members hold a democratic mandate and are responsible for EU policy implementation, has an annual budget 41 million smaller than the EESC. And are you aware of this discrepancy? And if yes, how can this be justified? Thank you very much, Madam President. Thank you very much. I would like to give the floor now to Dwayne Stanley, please. Our colleague Dwayne Stanley. I hope you can hear me. Yes, can you hear me, President? Go ahead, Caroline, yes. Yes, thank you, dear presidents. The support given by the EU towards Ireland and its attempts to protect the Irish protocol and the Good Friday Agreement are most welcome. The Irish protocol is designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement. The intent of the British government to introduce the Internal Market Bill rides rodshot over the protocol and the Good Friday Agreement. The single most important priority for all of the political parties on the island of Ireland and throughout the EU as a whole must be the protection of the Irish peace process. The introduction of a hard border in Ireland threatens to undermine the peace process. The British are aware if they introduce the Internal Market Bill that they are in clear breach of a withdrawal agreement which Boris Johnson has previously signed up to and are further aware that they are breaking international law. We commend the decision of the EU to pursue legal action against the British over this breach of international law. The political, social and economic implications of Brexit for Ireland are immense. When the Brexit crisis is viewed in conjunction with COVID-19 pandemic, the scale of the threats that Ireland faces are immense. Ireland needs funding to deal with Brexit. The central bank fears that a no-deal Brexit could lead to the loss of over 100,000 jobs. Further to this, we could witness the loss of 75% of our food trade with Britain. Thank you, President. Thank you very much. I give the floor now to Mr. Schwarz Kieffer. Mr. Schwarz Kieffer, please. You have the floor. I give the floor now to our colleague, Mr. Mark Speisch, please. Mark, you have the floor. Mr. Gunther Platter, please. We're experiencing some issues with the connections. But this is how the corona pandemic situation is, and we need to adjust to it. So bear with us and have confidence. Please. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. The economic progress is already being felt in my home region, in Comitat Brana and Boronja, in the south, where the unemployment rate has already been significantly increased. What is an important task for the coming years is that you do not allow it to get bigger between the less developed regions and the developed regions. If we only assume that there are many regions in the smaller regions that have to live from 200 to 300 Euros per month, we see that there would be unforeseeable consequences if there were even bigger differences. Our goal must be that in our Europe all citizens can live independently from the government in prosperity and freedom. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much. I would like to try now Piero Mauro Zanin. President, good morning to you and President Van der Leyen. I think that to face the COVID-19 problem better, we will have to have a greater involvement of the regions of the local entities in the decision-making processes, both of the Union and of other European institutions with a greater role for the Committee of Regions. I think that this must also be understood, as we have been treated directly in the directive, also by forcing the national states to respect the autonomy. This is also to give a role to Europe against sovereignism. The future interventions must be reversed in the demographic challenge, there is no Europe without citizens of Europe, and also towards the migration challenge. As for the rules, also on the occasion of the COVID-19, they must be common rules to European citizens, which today in Italy we risk not to act, unfortunately, immigrants do not always respect the rules to maintain the pandemic that we have. In one last word, we can say that the Europe of the future that is born after the COVID-19, must be a Europe that must stick to circular sustainability. Therefore, Europe has been, but essentially, also regions and local entities. Thank you very much. President von der Leyen, for one minute. President, dear Mr. President, thank you for the great debate. In recent months, we have seen that the region and local authorities have played a key role in solving the epidemic situation, but the citizens of the EU don't just want to see a common burden. They would like to see an effective and opportunity period union because sooner or later they will become disillusioned with the principles set out by the EU. There's a need for regulation that provides a helping hand to member states and local governments to cooperate with each other to share their experiences in EU level two. There's a need for strong cooperation between the local and national governments in the field of the pandemic situation and accomplish development plans together, as they see good examples for it in Hungary and in my city-west fame. Europe meets concrete corporations, common goals, political struggles at the level of regions and cities too. Our task is not to increase the divisions, but to focus on cooperation to protect our citizens and to increase the economic prosperity. Thank you. And one last intervention from Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, please. Can you hear me now? You're connected. Yes, go ahead. Can you hear me now? Mr. President, just a few words from the city where solidarity was born. Current situation, COVID situation shows how much we need solidarity, not only in Europe, connected to Europe, European institutions, but also solidarity with central governments and our regional and local authorities. This is something what we deeply need, not only in Poland, but as far as I heard my colleagues from different countries, this is something what we deeply need. Solidarity and cooperation. Best regards from you guys. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor, for being that brief. And I would like to thank all of our members, colleagues who intervened during this very important debate on the local and regional barometer with the presence of President von der Leyen. I would like to give the floor now to a very good friend of the Committee of the Regions, the Vice President, Sefsiewicz, who will react to what was heard during the debate from our members. Vice President Sefsiewicz, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Mr. President, dear Apostolos. I think that Committee of Regions has proven its resilience because we are debating, discussing, despite the technical challenges which have clearly been there, but I think that our focus on what's important for Europe, for our citizens in these weeks and days prevailed over the technical difficulties. We just show us that what we really need in Europe is not only to be the greener, to be more resilient, but also to be truly digital so we can really use this technological equipment for our better communications and the connection. First of all, I really would like to thank you, Mr. President, but also the whole Committee of the Regions for a highly valued report, the barometer you just presented in such an eloquent way, and I think that it's very well underlining the thrust of most of the intervention, and I think that Mayor of Dance Madame Dukiewicz just said it rightly. This is the time where we need more than ever solidarity among our peoples, among our countries, among our citizens, and therefore that measure of the temperature in our cities and regions which you've been working on and which you provided us with was a very crucial contribution to our future work. Mr. Johnkman was highlighting the fact that regional and local authorities very often have the highest political trust from the citizens, and I think it's very understandable because you are there dealing with the issue so close to the hardware citizens of daily basis. You are the first address, you are the first instance where they want to solve the problem or when they want to point to the possible solutions and therefore your input, your contribution and close collaboration with the European Commission is so important. Several of the members have been highlighting the issue which unfortunately is again on the top of the political agenda, and this is Covid-19 crisis, we see that how this virus is again negatively affecting our lives and how this has to push us not only in adopting right decisions, but to prepare better for the future. Madame Tito at the beginning of our discussion was highlighting the importance to support as much as we can our frontline workers. Mr. Platter was advocating more coordination if it comes to travel and health advisory and Madame Chauvelier is working on her report on lessons learned from the Covid. I think all this would be very important for our future work. Just to inform you that tomorrow morning I'll be travelling to Luxembourg. We will have another session of the General Affairs Council where usually the European ministers are discussing the current and the future issues. We will be preparing the next European Council, next European summit, but at the same time we also will be discussing how can we bring more and better coordination, especially if it comes to the measures, if it comes to the travel restrictions and if it comes to the methodologies which we have to work hard that it would be as similar as possible so our citizens who are working in different parts of Europe or travelling would be better informed and it would be easier to understand what the advisories are telling to all of us. Our President Ursula von der Leyen was highlighting your important role in shaping future policies of the European Union. Of course now we are working hard with the Council, the Member States and the European Parliament to finalise not only the next multi-annual financial perspective, but also the next generation EU which is a new instrument which is a facility without any precedent in the history with only one aim to bring the necessary financial support where it's needed the most. To modernise the Europe, to kickstart the economy and to also work on all those structural deficiencies which we are accumulating in Europe in our Member States over the year. And we hope that we will have the final deal as soon as possible because we know how our regions, how our cities, how our Member States need this support of 1.8 trillion euros. And you heard our President well what we definitely expect and would prefer in the European Commission would be the good interaction between the national governments and the regional and local representatives. The inclusion of the social partners into the preparation and later on is one of the major executions of these national recovery plans because we have one in a lifetime opportunity to really modernise the Europe to get most of the green and digital transition and to really bring new elements in place so the resilience of our economies of our democratic systems would be much stronger than it is right now. And I think the examples which been mentioned by Mrs. Landergren or Mr. Ebb was concerning the incentive which we have to put thanks to these new instruments on new skills for green jobs like batteries or for digital transformation like the field of artificial intelligence are very important and we have to make sure that we would not only adjust the skill sets of our people in Europe but also help them to acquire them through the adjusted curriculum programs at the universities or special vocational training. The green transition is not an easy one therefore we introduced the Just Transition Fund which would help those regions which would be affected most by the transition from the former coal mining regions or be the regions where the heavy energy consumption industries are located. And for that of course we need a good project we need a good plans and I know that you are working on the ground and you would be the best address on our request to help us to identify what should be the projects what should be the plans for these concrete regions which will have to go through this very demanding transition in the fairest possible way where nobody is left behind and where we can jump from very often the black industry like the coal mining was into the green one like the battery production or the smart mobility technology development is. A lot of you have been addressing the issue of resilience I just presented like months ago my first ever strategic foresight report which was all about the resilience how important it is how we have to develop new measures to monitor our progress and how we would like to use the data to measure what resilience really means for health, for green policies, for digital for our geopolitical positioning of the European Union on this global in this global competition because we see how fierce it is and there I also would like to invite you to cooperate with us to have a look at these resilient prototype dashboards if you would like to improve them if you would like to bring additional data because that would be extremely helpful coming from somebody like you who have field experience who are really on the front line to conclude Mr. President and honorable members of the Committee of Regions I feel really honored that you invited me to participate in your discussion of course as I would say all of us I would prefer the physical meeting when we can see each other when we can talk to each other when we can have our side discussions in the corridors I hope that this time will come soon because I think all of us long for that and we cannot wait until I would say this normal see how to meet, how to discuss how to shape our policies for the future could be done in physical presence and from person to person contacts but until this is the case we have to use every available technology at our disposal and therefore I am very much obliged to Mr. President for excellent presentation of your report and hard work your members have been doing and looking forward to our future frequent contacts thank you very much Thank you very much Vice President Sevchevich it's really an honor and a privilege to be collaborating with you during all these previous time and I am sure that we have a lot of things to do together in the future and thank you very much for your this debate and to what our members have raised I would also like to thank President Fonderline for her participation in this first annual local and regional barometer which we presented today I would say that at this point we can conclude our debate on the barometer