 It's a debate on the role of local and regional authorities in the context of the EU-UK partnership. It is my pleasure and honor to welcome Vice President of the European Commissioner Maros Sevkovich. I think he's online and he's with us. Thank you so much for being with us. The situation right now, some years from Brazic, Brexit, invites us to assess where we are from the local and regional authorities point of view. We have made some work, we have participated in the group that is monitoring this process. We would hope that from the UK side that was also possible to have local and regional authorities. But your participation, Mr. Vice President, and the debate that we will follow that will allow us to at this point to assess how things are going from that point of view. So without further delay, Vice President Sevkovich, you have the floor. I invite you to take the floor for about eight minutes. Thank you. I think please press the speak button. I think we're online. Everything is ready just to press the speak button, Vice President. That was our initial plan to have Vice President Sevkovich giving us an insight. The information I have is that it's connected. Everything is ready. This is a technical issue, no technical issue. They told me it's a question of pushing the button. May we move to you? Yes. Well, we'll try to solve this technical issue briefly. Meanwhile, we'll proceed to our colleague, Michael Murphy, to the presentation of an opinion strengthening the EU-UK relationship at sub-national level, and the territorial impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. Michael, you have the floor for five minutes. Thank you, Chair. First of all, I'd like to thank Commissioner Sevkovich for joining us today. I look forward to his intervention perhaps later. I'm delighted to present this opinion for adoption today. It is draft opinion strengthening the EU-UK relationship at the sub-national level and remedying the territorial impact of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. This opinion, colleagues, will be one of the first institutional positions looking beyond the intergovernmental relationship. The relationship between the EU and the UK is still very much determined by the trade and cooperation agreement, which we know prioritizes the intergovernmental relationship. However, the TCA lacks territorial depth. The relationship between the EU and the UK is different, and the TCA is not just a typical free trade agreement. The TCA has been agreed with a former EU member state, not like with a normal third country, so the future relationship is different and perhaps needs to be more flexible. The voice of local and regional authorities needs to be formally recognized and heard in the implementation of the TCA. I recognize that the EU-UK contact group in the CUR is the only institutional mechanism providing a forum for continued dialogue between the EU and UK local and regional authorities. My opinion has three concrete asks, firstly, I am therefore calling for the formal recognition of the CUR-UK contact group in the TCA, and I'm calling for the Commission to re-examine the structures of the Joint Partnership Council to seek to address this lack of territorial depth. Secondly, on the implementation of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, the CUR therefore insists that the provision of the BAR regulation relating to the involvement of local and regional communities in the BAR's implementation and the reporting at nuts to level are fully respected. And finally, I am asking for the European Parliament to seek to formalize interaction with the CUR ahead of their meetings as part of the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly, the PPA. I welcome the positive comments on this point at the recent sixth meeting of the contact group held in Cardiff, and I know discussions are underway to confirm the recognition of an observer status of the CUR and its UK partners in the workings of the PPA. On avenues and areas for future cooperation, I have noticed the willingness from the grassroots of local and regional government for ongoing, even enhanced relationship with EU counterparts in this post-Brexit area. I also recognize that the narrative is regrettably not the same as the account provided at national UK government level. We cannot just wait for a step change in the UK national government's approach to Europe for more encouragement and facilitation of EU-UK sub-national relations in concrete areas of mutual cooperation. As local government is the level closest to the citizen, I firmly believe there is an onus on us all to better grasp and understand the potential of relations and partnerships at EU-UK sub-national level. In conclusion, I welcome the amendments put forward by you, my colleagues, and I am willing to accept all of these as they enhance the clarity within the opinion. Before I commend this opinion to you this afternoon, I just want to thank a number of individuals in conclusion. Firstly, my expert, Theresa Lennon, who heads up the Irish Regents Office here in Brussels for her extraordinary assistance. To match you and the Civic Secretary for his exceptional help as well, I'd also like to acknowledge the existence of Donald Kennedy within the EPP Group. I'd like to acknowledge the assistance of the Chair of the EU-UK Contact Group, Lloyd Shosner-Gerard, and indeed the members of the wider Contact Group, Taig also in the Irish Regents Office, and more importantly, you the members for your support for your engagement in the Quarter, Civics and Econ Commission meetings. It's now my pleasure, Chair, to commend this opinion to you this afternoon. Thank you for listening. Thank you. We have one request for the floor. Zita Ali Ferrari, you have the floor for one minute. Muchas gracias, Presidente. Thanks very much. I'd like to congratulate Mr Murphy on the opinion, with which we totally agree. Just quickly, I'd like to highlight the importance of sharing knowledge with the UK programs such as Horizon Europe and other international cooperation programs as well. We also think it's important to continue looking into new methods and models of cooperation and funding with subnational institutions in line with all of the strategies that you were talking about. Finally, the impact of economic and trade relations of Brexit is important, and we need to think about the issues such as new customs controls and the effect that they have on the logistics chain. In this regard, I'd like to recall the importance of the simplification of administrative import procedures as one of the best ways of supporting SMEs, mainly. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr Vice President. I think after all the stories we heard from Ukraine, it's very humbling to see what the work is and the position is that the mayors from Ukraine are in. And I think this also is a strong warning or a strong underlining of the EU as a partnership for peace. And even though in Brexit it might not be or in EU-UK relations, it might seem very distant to talk about the situation in Ukraine, I'd like to call into memory the situation we had in May last year where we had two naval vessels from the UK and two naval vessels from France more or less in a stand-off at Jersey Island in the English Channel. So we have some tense moments that were inconceivable before Brexit. And I think this is a warning we should all take very seriously. My province of Lavelland in the Netherlands, we have a strong fishery community that is also hit hard by the consequences of Brexit. Thank you. Now, Michael Murphy, do you want to have some final remarks now? So this concludes the presentation of this opinion. We go back to the debate with Vice President Sefkovic. Now I think he's connected. Welcome, Vice President. You have the floor. We invite you to take the floor for about eight minutes. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I can hear you. Go ahead. Go ahead. You can hear me. That's fantastic. Now, first and foremost, thank you very much for your kind invitation. And I also am very thankful to the rapporter, Mr. Murphy, and also to the previous speakers. And I will come to the points in a second. But first and foremost, I would like to appreciate all the agenda, all the emotions expressed, all the involvement for the plight of our Ukrainian and Ukrainian friends. And I can only tell you how much the Commission appreciates the support of the Committee of Regents for Ukraine, for our work, where I'm sure all of us want to help them as much as possible to liberate the country. And that we are already planning right now how to help them to rebuild it, to be democratic, prosperous, and truly European country, as we know it in our EU and among our EU member states. And I really want to thank you also for all the remarks about the lessons learned from the Russian invasion. What it means for us if it comes to security, to defense, what we have to do to be more secure from the point of view of energy supplies. And I want to thank all the honorable members of the Committee of Regents, because I'm sure that all of them have been working extremely hard to welcome the Ukrainian refugees. As you know, I'm from Slovakia. And I know what the challenge this was for the local authority, for the local governments, mayors, for local councillors to make sure that not only that hospitality offered by our citizens, but also by the local actors being in place so that gyms could be transformed into shelters, that the food was offered to the women and children coming in huge distress from Ukraine, and that all that was managed with such a remarkable solidarity upon which we all can be proud of. And I think it was very important in that moment, because this crisis is going with us to stay and Ukraine will need a lot of support from all of us. And therefore, once again, I want to thank you for the agenda of today, for the way how the Committee of Regents was approaching this very, very important issue for the future of Ukraine, but I also would say for the future of Europe. And as we just heard a minute ago, of course, today we are going to discuss a totally different situation, because we all know that the United Kingdom left the European Union to the choice of the United Kingdom. And you know that we had to and we have built a new relationship with the UK as the third countries. And therefore, once again, I'm very obliged to you for not only preparation of that report of Mr. McMarphy, but also for the possibility to discuss with you directly the role of local and regional authorities in this new context of the EU-UK relations. Now we can say that with more than a year having passed in the trade and cooperation agreement came into force, that this is indeed a timely opportunity to take stock of these developments and also to allow us to look at overall picture of these developments over this time. As I'm sure all of your honorable members know, our overriding objective remains the same. And it is to establish a positive and stable relationship with the United Kingdom. We are the partners over with the shared values. We have to face the number of global challenges side by side, not least the Russian aggressions against Ukraine, its wide raging impacts, and all the consequences for the future. And here I want to say that the cooperation with the UK was indeed remarkable. But today we are here to discuss two binding agreements which have been signed with the United Kingdom, the withdrawal agreement, and the trade and cooperation agreement, which in our view provide very solid foundation for achieving this new relationship with the UK and the third country. As you know, the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland is an integral part of the withdrawal agreement, and it actually represents the solution agreed with the UK government to protect the Good Friday Belfast Agreement, to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, but also to protect the integrity of the EU single market. Since the beginning, the Commission has been fully committed to implementing a withdrawal agreement as agreed, signed, and ratified by both the EU and the UK. We have maintained the constructive approach, focusing on finding practical solutions to the issues that are affecting people and businesses on the ground in Northern Ireland. And I, myself, visited Northern Ireland last September. When I'm talking about the practical solution, I'm talking about the package of bespoke arrangements we put forward in October, which was designed to further facilitate the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while preserving the single market. It provides for significant easements for operators in Northern Ireland, notably in the areas of medicine, supply, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and customs. It also addresses strength and participation of Northern Ireland's shareholders in the implementation of the protocol. As I have previously underlined, there was a particular urgency to act over medicines. The Commission therefore put forward in December a series of legislative proposals to ensure both the continuous supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and the access to the same medicine at the same time across the whole United Kingdom. The European Parliament and the Council have dealt with this file quickly, efficiently. I would like to thank them for that. And now we can be very pleased to say that the EU has indeed delivered on this promise and we did it in a record time. We've been holding intensive calls with the UK both at the political and technical level in order to seek joint solutions to the remaining challenges around the protocol. On 21st of February, I co-chaired a joint committee meeting alongside the UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, showing that we continue to operate in the established governance framework. Following the meeting, we issued a joint statement highlighting that we remain determined to find durable solutions for the benefit of people, businesses, and stability in Northern Ireland. And this still remains our overarching aim. With regards to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, we have held initial meetings of its joint bodies, including the Partnership Council and 19 committees. While we are closely following the implementation of the entire agreement, the areas of fisheries and the level playing field have required particular attention. I think it is worthwhile underlying once again that the TCA is not and can never be a replacement for the EU membership. The UK chose to end the free movement of people and leave the single market and the customs union. As a result, there is no longer as friction, as a result, the trade is no longer as frictionless and as dynamic as it was before. And you know very well that it was not our European choice. But this is the direct consequence of the type of Brexit chosen by the UK government. Businesses on both sides of the channel have to adapt to this new reality, especially in light of other factors affecting trade flows such as COVID-19 pandemics. Let me now turn to the role of the local and regional authorities in the context of EU-UK relations and in particular about the territorial dimension of the TCA. This is of course an issue of particular interest to you and the focus of the draft opinion which you will adopt later today. I want once again to commend the rapporteur, Mr. Michael Murphy, for his extensive work on this. And I welcome the ambition of the committee to cooperate with the UK at the local and regional level, albeit within the confines of the type of Brexit chosen by the UK government. While the committee has no formal role when it comes to the EU international agreement, the commissioner's door is always open. To discuss these issues, to provide information and to listen to the voice of regions. And we look forward to continuing the regular exchanges we have had with the committee's UK contact group over the past two years as we move forward with the implementation of the trade and cooperation agreement. And we are already working to support the people and businesses most affected by Brexit. For example, the Peace Plus initiative helps finance project across Northern Ireland and the border counties which are aimed at reconciling communities and contributing to peace, including co-financing from Ireland and the United Kingdom, funding under Peace Plus will amount to more than one billion euros. I personally visited the community at Flurry Bridge and I was extremely impressed by the progress that the community have achieved over the last 20 years. I saw the pictures, I saw the video, how this community looked during the time of troubles and what the difference the EU involvement, peace and business development and inter-communal work has done to this place, how the business community is developing, how the new opportunities are created and how the people on the both sides of the border wanted this to continue. I personally visited Schenkel Road Centre for the project for the people from the both communities in Belfast and throughout the whole Northern Ireland are very often organized and promoted extremely efficient and hardworking women who are working at this centre. And I very much appreciated and took it away from me how important the Peace Plus and European support was for their work. And therefore I think we just have to continue our work, our efforts here because as we see elsewhere in the world the peace is very much worth to work for and we have to show our commitment, our support, our encouragement and our political involvement to promote peace at every possible occasion. As you know and the previous speakers referred also to the Brexit Adjustment Reserve. Totally more than 5 billion euros have been not only allocated but already started to flow to the regions and sectors where it is needed the most to help businesses, workers and local communities. So to conclude, dear vice vice presidents and honourable members of the Committee of Regents, I once again would like to thank the Committee for all its efforts to connect regions in the EU and the UK but also for giving me this opportunity to update you on our work in this area. I very much appreciate your interest. I very much appreciate the invitations to work more together and we are very much looking forward not only to our exchanges but also to our common work so we will deliver for the regions in Europe and also for our good relationship with your partners in the UK. Thank you very much. Thank you vice president. Now we have some members that ask for a floor. We invite you to stay with us for final remarks if you want at the final of this. Now I give the floor to Michael Murphy for two minutes. Thank you chair. Vice president forced to reiterate and I know from previous pronouncement that you agree, Brexit is not an Irish question or at least not just an Irish question. There has been an asymmetric impact across many regions from my own region in the southeast of Ireland, Hesse and in Germany to West Sweden, Bento and Brittany amongst others. I know you're sensitive to the particularities of Northern Ireland and indeed the Northern Ireland protocol and the importance of the protocol in terms of ensuring no hard border on the island of Ireland and indeed protecting the single market. Breaking down into two parts the context of my forthcoming opinion, first of all, strengthening the EU-UK relationship at the sub-national level and remedying the territorial impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. Vice president, I appeal to you for local and regional authorities, we cannot simply wait for there to be a step change in the approach of the national UK government. When there is an onus on all of us to better grasp and understand the potential of relations, projects, initiatives at the EU-UK sub-national level and building on decades of cross-border cooperation over many programs, including my own region, for example, the Ireland-Wales program, the future of student exchanges, collaborating on climate adaptation and change and scoping out by regional trade agencies of alternative markets, all unfinished business. Finally, on the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, I want to welcome your work and disregard and the recent disbursements. Vice president, we've had excellent collaboration with your team and your services for which I and my team are very, very grateful. Thank you for your attention and for being with us today. Thank you, chair. Thank you. Now I'll give the floor to Jesus Gamalio Allier for two minutes. Thank you very much. There's extremely poor sound making it very difficult to interpret. In fact, it's impossible. Unfortunately, the interpreter will have to turn off. Talking about legislation on a regional and local level, it's important to be present when it comes to integration, and Brexit has been one of the major stumbling blocks. That's why the regions support and welcome the fund, although we should reiterate that the provisions of the regulation on the fund concerning participation of regional bodies need to be totally respected. Unfortunately, the interpretation cannot continue. To support us in the participation in European programmes and regarding the agreement on trade and cooperation, we need regional and local entities to participate, to look for formulas to participate in its execution as the vice president has pointed out. I wouldn't like to end my intervention without congratulating colleague Marfi for his excellent work. He has been able to agglutinate all our demands in such a way that many thanks to Michael, many thanks to the vice president. Thank you, Ms. Gomes, four minutes. Thank you very much. As said on the 18th of March, the contact group with Brexit held its sixth meeting. I'd like to use this opportunity to thank those who organised this meeting because the work was extremely well done and the meeting was extremely fruitful. I should say that the work took place in an open collaborative manner between the members of the national governments and parliaments and also with the representatives of the UK government. It was a frank and open dialogue. I'd like to share with you a couple of conclusions drawn from the sixth meeting that took place in five points, if I may. First, it can be difficult, but on the request from the Committee of the Regions to have observer status in the parliamentary partnership, we have to continue following up and monitoring, and we hope for a positive response. As the Committee of the Regions, we're going to defend a revision of the agreement so that it includes the recognition of cooperation. And my colleague said here that it's an issue of partnerships with regions and municipalities, and this has to be able to take place. This agreement needs to be put in place, and I think we should actually go beyond the provisions of the agreement with diplomacy on issues related to global governance and then cooperation in the field of education, research and culture. Having said that, I welcome the effort undertaken by the Welsh Government because the programme allows for exchanges between students from Wales and the EU to continue. They have provided 65 million euros to replace the Erasmus programme, and this is a huge loss for the European Union. The fact that our students can no longer go and spend their Erasmus year in the UK, so I'd like to underscore the role of Wales in this. And finally, given the complexity of the whole process, I do hope that the contact group will continue its work because of course it hasn't yet been concluded. We've got the examination that's going to be taking place in summer 2022, but it's essential given the current situation in Europe, the UK may have left the European Union, but it's still a European country, and therefore everything that affects the EU, affects the UK. That's why I think we need to continue to work along these lines. We need to be able to review the agreements where necessary. Thank you. Three minutes. Thank you, Mr Chair. Also, I'll just have a moment to speak earlier, so I'll keep it short. And I'd like to make two points. The first point I'd like to make is about the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly. I think more people made this point already, but it would be good if we would be able to get observer's status there. I'd like to support the point made by other people before. And we really deplore the fact that the people in the UK are not member of, are not able to benefit from the Erasmus Program anymore, or vice versa, we are through the Erasmus Program, able to benefit from the academic possibilities the UK offers. So we would really like to be able to support initiatives like the Welsh initiative, the TAFE initiative for youth mobility. Thank you, Mr Chair. Thank you, COVAX. COVAX, two and a half minutes. Thank you very much, President, Commissioner, dear colleagues. There has been much discussion over the past months on the future of the EU-UK subnational relations after Brexit. In the Committee of the Regions itself, this has largely followed the creation of the Committee of the Regions, UK Contact Group, and the opinion of Mr Murphy. We have also discussed these questions together with the recent visit of our contact group to the Welsh-snadded. Among the various issues discussed, there is one which is widely agreed upon, and that is a definite need for deeper collaboration between the local and regional authorities of the European Union and of the United Kingdom. As has been rightly noted in the Committee of the Regions opinion, the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement includes areas which are of member-state competence. The TCA also includes areas for civil society involvement. While this may be the case, we regret that certain level of acknowledgement has not been granted to cooperation between local governments. Our cooperation at this level, given that the UK cannot any longer take part in the meetings of the Committee of the Regions, should be better defined, regularised and formalised. Doing so would help to strengthen the UK's relationship with the EU, which is a special relationship due to its former EU membership, its geographic and economic proximity, and their continued participation in many EU programs. We have noted that many of the problems and opportunities raised by Brexit may not necessarily fall within the clear boundary of any particular member-state, nor might they be best addressed at the level of EU-UK relations. Instead, following the principle of subsidiarity, I believe that many of these questions are best answered by local and regional authorities and thus require a framework for greater inter-regional cooperation in addition to the inter-government channels. Such a new channel could be broadened only if we convincingly reassure the UK and our central governments that the goal is not to bypass them. Press the button. Does the two-minute start again now? Thank you. I hope there are. Chair, Commissioner Stefakiewicz, members of the Committee of the Regions, I would like to wholeheartedly thank you, Commissioner Stefakiewicz, for all of your work and for standing with Ireland and the other EU regions during the negotiations with Great Britain. It has moved on to deal with much more urgent crises since the Brexit negotiations concluded with the withdrawal agreement. First, we had Covid, and now we have the terrible and chappan situation in Ukraine. And our all our thoughts, and my thoughts in particular, have suffered loss of life and has been displaced by this despicable and unnecessary war that has been brought on by the Russian regime. However, there are parts of the aspects of the UK government's continued statements threatening to break the Northern Ireland protocol, which are deeply worrying. The EU has been flexible in the implementation of the agreement and the recent agreement on medicines is one example of this flexibility. But the withdrawal rights of EU citizens and the creation of new residency rights is deeply worrying and completely against what people want. I hope the European Commission can and will remain firm in this regard. We have enjoyed many years of cooperation with the development nations of the UK, as well as local authorities, and I believe we need to find new ways to foster this relationship. Most UK nations are willing to cooperate. This has been repeated on numerous occasions by our friends in Scotland, Wales, and indeed Northern Ireland, which I live beside. I'd like to see many more cities and country-county twins. There is more scope for regions like Flanders and Scotland to cooperate together and open the bridges that have been blocked. Unfortunately, I see more obstacles ahead if we have a blocked Northern Ireland assembly after the elections next week. The DUP is a political football with the EU and the UK withdrawal agreement. I hope I am wrong regarding this election and that we can see a smoother future for the EU and the UK, and I just want to thank Rappitor Murphy and his expert, Trace. Thank you. Fray, two minutes. Sehr geehrter Herr Präsident, Herr Kommissar. Herr Kommissar, German colleagues. Brexit was and still is a mistake, but I would like to focus on the monitoring report published in March 2021 of the Council of Europe on the situation of local governance in the UK because there has been a worrying development towards centralisation of local and regional powers. Local and regional governmental level have been losing more and more powers over the years being ceded to the central government. The UK has still not acceded to the relevant charter on local government powers. A national democracy can only work properly if the local and regional democracies work well and are resilient. So, if in the European Union we want to work with the UK at the local level, we have to bear in mind that, first of all, the powers on the other side might not be as well backed as they are in our own country or region. And secondly, local and regional structures of our partners in the UK need to be strengthened so that any further concentration of power in Downing Street is avoided. For example, we could have Scotland being a partner in Erasmus independently because Scotland is responsible for its own education system. So, I would like to ask the commissioner to think about allowing the regional powers to participate in EU programs. One minute. German colleagues, since the recent Russian aggression in the Ukraine, the European Union and the UK have been working together a little bit more closely. Regional levels can ensure that this continues to happen. In North Rhine-Westphalia, in 2021, we had the 75th anniversary of our friendly relationship. This particular friendship is marked by a lot of school exchanges, town-twinning schemes, cultural cooperation and a closer economic ties. Unfortunately, since Brexit, we've seen a backsliding in goods, trade, pharmaceutical products being an example. I think we have to reverse this trend. Ladies and gentlemen, this can only happen if the potential of regional relations is exploited or with the UK. Duane Stanley, one minute. Press the button. Thank you. You can hear me now. Commissioner, the protocol protects the all-island economy and prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland. Moves by the British government to circumvent the protocol legally within the past week must be totally resisted. Any unilateral action by the British government is a breach of international law. The impact of Brexit has pulled the north of Ireland out of the European Union against the wishes of the majority. The north of Ireland voted to remain in the EU. The facts are the trade between the north and the south of Ireland have increased dramatically since the protocol was activated. You commissioner have acted in good faith. The European Commission took steps earlier this month to resolve the medicines issue and continue for other solutions. My party, Sinn Fein, welcomes that. The EU must continue to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the protocol. All efforts must be made post-assembly election to get started. Thank you. Now we have Miss Fernandez Viana. Paula Fernandez Viana. Good afternoon again with regard to the agreement I think it's positive it shows that the European Union and the UK can start a new chapter. Regions such as Cantabria have had close times with the UK for some time and that's why we're well placed for a general vision of the relationship. The sound is extremely poor making it hard to hear what the speaker is saying. In this regard a macro regional strategy might be a good idea for relationships with the regions in the UK. We need to find a way of involvement in issues such as research, innovation, renewable energies and the marine environment. We welcome the implementation of these programs but we want to participate directly in their management. If we use criteria that don't take into account the social reality it's President Sefkovic to take the floor for about three minutes to final remarks. Mr Vice President you have the floor. Thank you very much Mr Vice President and I would like to thank all the speakers for the intervention, for the support for the kind words but also for encouragement for all of us to do even better in the future. I totally agree with our reporter with Mr Murphy that clearly the Brexit is not only Irish problem he is absolutely right even though we know that Ireland is the most affected country but we are working very closely with all the countries and all the regions especially in the coastal member states who in particular had to adjust to this new reality and I'm very glad that also in this regard if you look to the Brexit adjustment reserve as Mr Gamaldo-Aller has alluded to I'm glad to report that already 73% of the financial resources allocated for the Brexit adjustment reserve for this year being already allocated. I think it's a big success that we could have done so quickly and I'm sure it's also thanks to the high quality of projects which have been presented and the good administration of these funds on the ground and as always the commission is of course encouraging all member states to work as closely as possible with the regional and local authorities in preparation and for concrete implementation of the projects. Madam Gomesh, Mr. Reisbaum but also Mr. Freybinol referring to unfortunate consequences for the student exchanges. I think that I'm not revealing a big secret but I can tell you that until the last minute of the negotiations which concluded the TCA we at the commission and our president Ursula von der Leyen been insisting on making sure that we can continue our cooperation within the Erasmus. Unfortunately the decision of the UK government was a different one that decided to go for their own scheme which is the case and of course now we have all to adjust to the new reality. To Mr. Stanson, I would like to thank you for your kind words concerning the supply of medicines to Northern Ireland. It was not easy thing to do but by these very concrete examples we demonstrated we are ready to change our legislation if necessary to make sure that we would really make it very clear that what we are doing here in implementing the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland we are promoting peace, we are protecting the results of the Good Friday Agreement we want to deliver for the benefits of the people, businesses in Northern Ireland and that's a guiding principle for all other outstanding issues which you are discussing with the UK government that will continue to do so I just really would like to also ensure that if it comes to citizens rights we are following the issue very very closely on our own we are following the work of independent authority in the UK and discussing all outstanding issues with our UK partners regularly. I know that my time is up Mr. Vice President so I really would like to thank all the colleagues for excellent intervention and for the great report and just to promise you that we will be working as closely with you as we have been until now and I look forward to our future discussion on this or other topics thank you very much Mr. Vice President thank you Vice President for your participation it was an honour and pleasure to have you thank you so much for being with us ladies and gentlemen we have a break now we will resume our session at 5.30 starting with point number 7 have a good break