 We are ready to resume our first day of our plenary session. So if you may take your seats, please, because we are having a very interesting debate from now on. It's the debate on better regulation foresight and the European Commission's work program for 2022. And it's a great pleasure to have with us the Vice President of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations and foresight, Mr. Marosz Seshkovic. So thank you very much for being here, Vice President. It's a great honor again, and I'm really happy to welcome you in the Committee of the Regents. Thank you for having accepted our invitation to exchange views on better regulation, one the legislative working program of the European Commission in 2022, and on the upcoming second foresight report. The European Committee of the Regents and myself are your committed partners. When it comes to taking into account the territorial impact of EU legislation and evaluate a new legislation is needed. The quality of the EU legislation is better when local and regional authorities share with the Commission their experience and knowledge on the ground based always on subsidiarity. Therefore we would expect and very much appreciate if this territorial dimension will be duly taken into account in the European Commission's 2021 State of the Union. I'm sure you would agree with me that an effective cooperation with local and regional authorities allows the European Union to improve its policy cycle. Policy design and preparation, adoption, implementation, evaluation and revision. With the same objective we wish to make the process more territorially sensitive. Since 2020 the COR resolution on the Commission's work program reflects contributions received by regional parliaments with legislative power. They are strong engines often too neglected. Their proximity to citizens and their legitimacy in democratic terms would significantly improve the quality and the density of the European democracy. For instance, yesterday presidents of regional parliaments and regions endorsed a declaration that initiated an alliance of regions of European democracy. The purpose of this alliance is to use the strength and the diversity of regions with and without legislative powers to create a strong critical mass that can make a better impact on the EU legislative process. Finally, Vice President Sefciowicz, we look forward to receive the second report on the foresight. Seeking strategic autonomy at European level may affect different regions in Europe and very differently. So the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that only coordinated European action can be successful. The Committee of Regents will explore the option of acting as a hub for existing foresight activities at local and regional level in order to ensure that their contributions can be fed into the European processes. This is how we view the collaboration with you and this is how we believe is the way we need to move forward. So dear Vice President, good friend Maros, welcome, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, dear President, dear Apostolos, dear members, it's always a pleasure to address the Committee of Regents and once again I would like to thank you for your kind invitation because indeed it's very timely and I will go through the topics as you suggested, Mr. President. And also I would like to inform you that today we adopted the communication on the long-term vision of the rural areas in Europe which I think is also very important contributions to the deliberations and discussions which you will have in the future because of course in these times we will see how the rural development, how that rebalancing of the life in the cities and the outskirts or outside of the cities especially after this very unpleasant lockdowns and common experience is becoming more and more important and it's kind of reversing that global trend of urbanization which we have seen over the last decades. But coming back to the topics as you proposed them, I want first and foremost thank the Committee for the great cooperation for the fact that we are getting from you the direct input from the local, city, regional authorities level and then you make sure that your voices are heard and for us it's very essential. If it comes to the better regulation I'm sure that you are very aware that we adopted communication on better regulation already at the end of April and what of course was our goal here is to make sure that our legislation is better targeted, that is effective, that it's more easy to comply with and that we develop further our techniques to avoid unnecessary regulatory burdens and because of that we've been focusing in the communication on the three main aspects. The first one was to improve the outreach because all stakeholders should plan active part in the policy making process and here I'm referring again to local, regional, national authorities but also to social partners, businesses, academia and the general public. And I know that in the past we heard the criticism that even though our consultation mechanism was considered as the best in the world by the OECD that for many stakeholders it was rather complex, rather difficult to navigate through and on some of the flagship projects we've been coming back to you three or four times to get your opinion. So we changed that, we I believe simplified, we made the Have Your Safe Portal our major consultation platform more user friendly and we are now introducing a single call for evidence through clearer questionnaires and I hope that it would also increase the interest in consultations, it would make them faster, simpler and of course it would very much rely upon regional authorities to be active in this respect because you would be the first hand experience and first hand contributors into how this potential legislation or policy making would affect the lives of the people on the ground in your regions. I also count very much on the committee of regions Reg Hub 2.0 network because extremely useful, they're very good partners and they help us not only in disseminating these new calls at local, regional and national level but also they they contribute and tackling some parts of the unnecessary European bureaucracies extremely welcome. Second, I think very important element has to do with transparency, again when I come back to the consultation process often we heard the complaint that we contributed to the public consultations, we sent you our input but we never heard from you again and I know that this is very discouraging, this is not good practice and therefore we will be publishing factual summaries of the consultations with participants so everyone could see what was taken on board, how we work with the contributions which been sent to the European Commission and how we use it as evidence in preparing our proposals. On third, I think a very important element which we focused on was the reduction of costs which inevitably come with legislation so that they remain reasonable, they remain proportionate and to achieve this we put into effect one-in-one-out approach but we adjusted it to the European conditions because by our approach what we mean is to offset burdens emanating from new legislative proposals by reducing equivalent existing burdens in the same policy area and here I would like to underline that it does not mean a mechanical withdrawing of the old piece of legislation for every new proposal, I think we have to be smarter than this, we have to look at the burdens at the cost and how can we offset it in the same sector preferably within the same year, at the same time we will make absolutely sure because that was one of the messages we got from all stakeholders that we would never allow these efforts to lower our world-leading economic, social and environmental standards and we want to use this tool to make sure that new legislation is easy to comply with, is efficient and fit for the future and therefore once again I would like to thank the Committee of Regents and your representatives in the fit for future platform because they're doing great work and we very much need their support and their insights in our daily work in our legislative efforts. Here once again I I'm referring to Reg Hub 2.0 because on top of the usual asks we added one very special and very important ones, you I'm sure noticed that President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is now traveling around the member states and presenting together with the heads of states and government the recovery and resilience plans which we manage to conclude and which we are now launching and putting into the implementation phase and you know that through these plans we want to invest in European economy 750 billion euros which is massive investment it's the European moment it's a European Marshall plan for for the 21st century and when speaking about the 21st century if you want to achieve our goals in green and digital transition if you want to be more resilient what we need is infrastructure for 21st century and we all know that any infrastructure project in Europe is faced with a lot of obstacles very demanding permitting procedures lots of difficulties on all levels of governance and therefore I asked and I'm very glad that Reg Hub took this challenge to identify the bottlenecks why it takes us so long to approve the infrastructure projects which we know we need for the modernization of our economies and and I'm very glad that Reg Hub is working on it and very much looking forward to the findings which I hope we will be then able to put into the into the practice overall coming back to the fit for future platform there is very strong mandate for topics of particular importance for local and regional authorities be it annual work program be it cross border health care public procurement air quality all of these issues being suggested by the the committee of regions and we very much appreciate that as well as fact that three of the platforms will be now led by the committee's representatives the the next element which we've been very much focused on preparing the better regulation communication was how to embed the foresight into our political and legislative work as you know foresight is new modern anticipatory technique of the governance we need to learn from the past crisis is to anticipate better what might be around the corner or over the horizon and we want to use these techniques to factor in also our obligation that every proposal which we put on the table would have to respect the UN sustainable development goals it has to be digital by default and it has to respect the rule which we all collectively adopted do no significant harm and I believe that foresight techniques in particular would help us to do that in a better way we would need foresight also because we know that the world will not be less complex I think we have more disruptive future ahead of us and therefore we need this EU wide network of experts academia to make sure that our legislation would be future proof that in our next steps we would be guided by the by the science and by a scenario planning which would allow us to choose the future we want from us and the future which we need to build today the last point on this particular area which I would like to to mention is one very noble tasks I think we've got as a foresight community and this is actually implementation or work on the social summit conclusions in portal I'm sure that you noted that the leaders are calling upon us to go beyond GDP I think that they based this call on the fact that we've been working with on resilience dashboards where we used the existing data for every single member states and we looked what it means from the point of view of resilience how resilient is our healthcare how resilient are our digital networks how resilient we are from the or visa with the climate change where we are placing ourselves our member states an EU as such on this global map of competitors who are of course represented by major economic and political powers and and that lets of course the leaders to think about the need to develop hopefully in the future alternative to the to the GDP which would reflect better the economies of 21st century the well-being index and what we would see is as a healthy growth of our economies of course it would entail for Europe to preserve and further develop our freedom to act meaning our open strategic autonomy we have seen how vulnerable we could be in certain sectors how health materials or medicines production over the last year and therefore we'll be working very hard on making sure that Europe is the master of her own destiny and that we clearly would have the autonomy to act by putting the adequate stress on open strategic autonomy and my final final point on the commission war program of course it would be very much focused in the next year on the implementation of the next generation EU on restarting our economy on making sure that we will put into the place the new financial perspective and that we will do our utmost to turn the crisis into opportunity using for modernizing economy and for emerging from the crisis stronger I very much look forward to your resolution which you are going to discuss and vote on this afternoon and I can assure you that definitely use it to inform state of the union address which will be presented by the president of the commission in September and you know that this is programmatic speech which leads to the commission work program so once again thank you very much for all the contribution including your resolution on the commission work program and I very much look for our discussion for your questions and for our future cooperation thank you very much thank you very much vice president Sefkovic I would like to give the floor now to mr. Geblevic from the EPP for two minutes please thank you very much dear vice president Sefkovic on behalf of the EPP group I would like to welcome you to our plenary session and thank you for this very insightful intervention your presence today and also your words for example about rick hub initiative is approved of the european commission's readiness to take into account the regional and local perspective in the EU foresight thinking and development to do so the commission can make use of the resources of existing foresight capacity in many our regions and cities in addition the COR can contribute with the information gathered from many networks and consultation activities the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic fought us that only coordinated european action can includes that includes sub-national needs and contributions can be successful therefore the strategic autonomy of the european union as main force of the next foresight report must be built together with regions and cities tapping into rich source of the smart specializations strategies developed by many regions today will allow us to address EU strategic dependencies efficiently this is the key to achieve the ambitious twin digital and green transformation in europe vice president concluding the pandemic also triggered wider awareness of our dependency in pharmaceutical products from other countries the EU must address shortages and enhance strategies autonomy by bringing back the production of certain medicines critical substances including vaccines and protective equipment to europe thank you very much thank you the floor now for two minutes to mr armao from the epp thank you president thank you vice president sefkovich thank you for the opportunity to the european region thank you to the group that gives us the key issues of crucial importance for the numbers touched by its intervention with the agenda of the best of the best regulation la commission europea intende rafforzar ulteriormente i principi di subsidiarità e proporzionalità e dare seguito ai lavori della task force per la subsidiarità ed e la proporzionalità puramente la commissione si è impegnata a praticare la subsidiarità attiva con un impiego sistematico della griglia di valutazione della subsidiarità tuttavia occorre sottolineare come il tema della migliore regolamentazione per garantir una visione completa possibile della capacità di realizzazione comunitaria di rispondere con una saggezza della nostra comunità deve darsi da fare attivamente perché amministrazioni persone imprese possono contribuire alla formazione della decisione europea a telescopo fra gli strumenti messi in campo della commissione le consultazioni rappresentano un modo efficace come rappresentano elementi di innovazione i ab de la subsidiarità del comitato delle regioni che sono stati istituiti e all'invito fatto dalla task force per la subsidiarità si tratta di creare un sistema basato sul costante dialogo multidivello tra regioni enti locali stati e commissione europea per questo più che mai il pipi è auspica che le autonomie regionali e locali offrono il proprio tangibile contributo alle consultazioni della commissione europea tra gli obiettivi declinati al pipi è quello di creare un nuovo spirito comunitario in grado di protegere e rinnovare la nostra europea e bene è proprio attraverso il confronto multidivello proprio attraverso il più significativo coinvolgimento del comitato europeo delle regioni che si riesce a invernare i principi di subsidiarità e di coesione che sono alla base della nostra istituzione grazie grazie mille the floor to mr ruion for two minutes please thank you very much mr vice president it's a bit frustrating not to have you in front of us but I think it will be for soon to meet face to face for meetings here at the committee of the regions mr commissioner you are the european commissioner who holds the record of longevity in your functions but also one of those who have always been the most faithful to the committee of the regions and I sincerely want to thank you especially that you are present in our interlocutor on the issues as varied as the convention on the future of Europe the best to differentiate the subsidiarity the institutional relations or the brexit in the name of the socialist group I have three observations to share with you my first remark is not to be too stressed to conclude the work of the conference here in May 2022 the french experience of the citizen convention for the climate is speaking it was constituted in october 2019 but the legislative translation of our proposals is still in court citizen consultations are not being done by a finger snap it is an urgent request to prepare a reflection on the emanant device of this conference that must last beyond May 2022 like that of a permanent mechanism of citizen consultations in the image of those existing in the Belgian regions and such a mechanism could by the way be driven to the reform that you have proposed ends in the title of the best second remark my group also wishes that the convention beyond the only institutional questions and offers political reforms at the bottom if we had to choose that a reform theme to propose would be that of the black box of the European semester it must be deeply reformed to become more transparent more democratic more territorialized and more durable also it would be necessary to verify that the proposals made in the four European semesters are of added value European in particular in the implementation of the goals of sustainable development third observation jac de l'or the biological father of our institution who gave his name to our building said that we do not fall in love with the domestic market then what to say about the impact analysis this said the impact analysis may not be sexy but they are not less than a condition so that what is known for the quality of the legislation european that is why the translations you shoulder your support rather than completing the work of the commission by territorialized proposals can you expect us to return to the elevator to be fully associated in terms of prospects there is indeed a lot to know how to do at the level of the regions and municipalities on this subject and I am sure that our secretary general our secretary general would be willing to mobilize our team of experts on this theme thank you very much for your attention and above all thank you in advance of your course thank you very much miss reyes now for two minutes please from the p.s. group as well thank you very much president thank you very much thank you very much vice president I would also like to focus on your suggestions on the theme complex press better legislation we would especially like to focus on two things in your lecture from the 29th of april greetings first of all for your self-reliance that is checked consistently with all legislative proposals how do these proposals go to the implementation of the goals of the united nations for sustainable development but we would wish that the EU commission jumps over their shadows and takes such a test not only for legislation proposals but also for the overordained political processes such as the european semester and also with the existing reforms of the stability and growth practice we need a better footprint of sustainability in all political fields of the european union in this sense we would also hope that the debate about the return in the european political on other indicators than the proto inland product will be announced it would be exactly now the appropriate moment where we have a little time to concept the next generation of the EU promotion program from 2027 for sure that is also a topic for the conference of the future european second i would like to welcome your view of a simplification of public consultations through implementation of a single probe on the improved portal your opinion counts but please forget about so much simplification but not the diversity of speech with simply in English, for example, you do not come very far with me in Saarland and finally a third word to your proposed one-in-one-out approach with which you want to try to compare the burdens for the citizens and citizens and companies in some legislative proposals through a language saving as compared to the other proposals in the same political field or even in other political areas were introduced, our group welcomes it expressly that they have taken very extensive experience from the originally intended application of the rasemair principle with which Germany has taken very extensive experience, but not that yet it seems to us that it is still unclear how the respective costs and burdens should be calculated with the evaluation of various costs and conditions, the other will also be calculated the non-cost of non-treatment costs of non-Europe, although this is especially an important aspect for social and environmental aspects. The approach to storming a law for every proposed new law is in addition to no fact protected or scientifically funded concept, so the appeal to you and thank you very much. Thank you the floor now to miss Landergren from the Renew Europe group. We have now arrived at a further intolerance. As liberals, we have gone from word to word of action. We therefore have a resolution on the capital's role in reducing the burden on the HBTQI persons in Alde, on Alde congress, a few weeks ago. We have further built on the experiences of dialogues with not as similar communities and regional politicians and took inspiration from the European Parliament that called the EU to a zone of freedom for HBTQI persons LGBTIQ freedom zone. Who do they love? I have a dream that European cities stand up for freedom. I pray for the Commission to present a system that makes it possible for cities and communities to simply declare their place as a freedom zone for HBTQI persons in the work program for 2022. In the ownership of communities with responsibility for the surveillance of the regional committee, and one of the regional committee's three representatives for the platform, Fit for Future, I emphasize that the Union builds on teams that know the citizens, companies and public authorities. Teams that are transparent, open, easy to follow, teams that make our lives easier, better and safer to live. In the summer, as a representative for the platform, Fit for Future, I will put forward my thoughts on the directive on the border crossing, health and hospital care, with specific suggestions on how the law can be made smarter. I want patients to be able to seek care for doctors abroad. I want the care staff to be able to cooperate with their colleagues abroad. I want to see more digital tools to make the transition of tasks, records and images possible. I want it to work better for border regions that want to include stable partnerships and offer border crossing health and hospital services to the citizens on both sides of the border. I want the citizens to have better knowledge of this possibility. The citizens have the right to know how their Europe serves them and protects their health, both inside and outside of national borders. Thank you for your attention, Vice-President Sefkovic. I look forward to continuing the work together with you in the platform Fit for Future. Thank you. The floor now to Mr. Ortil from the ECR Group, please. We have to recognize this and realize it, because otherwise, this is the end of our everyday life, a meeting with friends, we will return to various types of lockdowns. And in front of us is really, despite everything, a long way to a certain level of normality, we have to say it so that we do not get rid of such an impression that everything is beyond us. I think that the good cooperation and the engagement of the European institutions, the power of our country, the power of the government in terms of supply and distribution of these vaccines is a good practice. I think that we have to wish that little space in the propositions about the European health system is dedicated to the role of the government in the protection of health. We are not only in the field of medical production, but also in other areas. We know how the issue of these vaccines has been exposed to us for a long time. We have to say that the next priority should be to continue to increase the scientific research and finally to run the economic autonomy in Europe, not only in the field of medical production, but also in other areas. We know how this issue of the lack of a pandemic will continue. Of course, I would like to say that the priority of the devices, that is, that the priority will be to impress the new financial perspective. There is really a lot of resources. In Poland, we have 37% of the country's budget for the protection of the climate. There is a 30% policy, so there is a great chance for the protection of the climate and for the entrepreneurs. Of course, I think that we have to set up a road line, but I would like to pay attention to the European Commission at the end of its work on the new industrial solution for the problems that the airports have. I think that developing mobility and multimodality in Europe must be a non-stop priority for the European Commission. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Mr. Ivan Yuk, please, from the EA Group. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, the best decision-making law is made as close as possible to the citizens or together with them the best. In fact, the local authorities can make sure that they have a dialogue with their residents every day. The program of the national community policy of the European Union is trying to level the difference between countries or regions, but the rich are getting richer and richer, while the poor are still left behind. From our experience, it turns out that more and more the differences in the regions, especially between the metropolitan areas and the urban areas, are getting deeper and deeper. There are demographic problems, economic problems, lack of elementary infrastructure and decreasing the number of public services. Therefore, it is worth noting that the opinion of the member of our group, Mr. Stenson, in the agenda of the urban areas, found the knowledge of the Committee of the Regions, then encouraged the agenda dedicated exclusively to the urban areas. The starting debate about the future of Europe has only emphasized that the problems of deepening the disproportionate development of the majority of European countries, as well as the level of development of fictions. In Poland, the national budget for rural areas and rural areas indicates more than 10% of the expenses, while the national budget for rural areas indicates more than 10% of the expenses, depending on the region. This is 4% to 8% of all rural areas, given the financial perspective. When 38% of the population of Poland lives in the urban areas, it is 93% of the territory of the country. Local authorities participate in consultations on the regional development strategy, but the financial table is already created by the regional government in the office. The attempt to solve the problem was a mandatory allocation of the resources available to the regions. In Poland, it is about 40%. Proportional to the number of city residents and urban areas, with a particular consideration of the provincial areas. The main criterion should be the height of income of the residents, i.e. declared in the petitions, in addition to the number of residents in the urban areas. The competition was also necessary. The objective of the perspective could be determined on what the money is already with the residents. In this way, Europe would be closer to its citizens, and the support of the participants of practically all willing residents, speed up the creation of the European Community and dialogues. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Now from the Greens Party. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Mr. Seskowicz. Thank you very much for your contribution. It is important to look forward and to come forward in Europe. And as a representative of local authorities, it is of course about the kind of local authorities that are involved in this process. And I'm just experiencing how the Regional Hub as a construction site in the Fit for Future platform, also in a regional area of my country, Schleswig-Holstein, has provided an important contribution to the participation evaluation and basically brings the whole project forward. The approval process, you have already said very clearly, should not be dismantled, but be shorter and more efficient. If we see what we have to do in 10 years to really achieve the Green Deal, then I think it will be clear how important this area is to be able to act too quickly. I will mention a few more points that are very important to the Green Group. And that is once the focus on the implementation of the next-generation instrument in the EU. It is important, above all, the active participation of the municipalities and regions. The Commission and the European Parliament have to make sure that the means are also used according to the requirements and that we are at least able to implement the 37% for climate investment. I think the national programs for implementation will allow a whole series of questions. And in this context, it is also important to extend the current extraordinary flexibility of the rule of state participation within the framework of the investment initiative plus until the end of 2022. That is important for the situation in the countries, in the regions, to be able to act efficiently. The situation of the municipalities and regions and the impact on the pandemic must also be taken into account how it is in place when it is about the process of stability and factor factor and the European Economic Governance. Public investment, which is the last clear point, basically the sustainable measures to ensure and improve the living conditions of the next generation are possible and will not be treated as normal. Thank you very much. We have four more remaining interventions. One minute each. Mr Kaki, from the EPP, for one minute. Thank you. But they are not enough. In my view, the European Union citizens are still little involved or perhaps little informed. If the better regulation wants to strengthen the principle of subsidiarity as fully respected, it will be important to insist on actions that reverse the trend of all European countries. It is a pleasure to record that the citizens will put a lot of trust in the local and regional but what does this mean? What does this mean? The European Union needs to be concerned. The distance from the sea is still a lot but I am certain that it will stimulate you, us and the Commission to work with greater commitment. Thank you. Because the regional experience of its members, most appreciated by the citizens of the European Union has an important value for the future of Europe. Thank you. Mr Czerstowski, for one minute from the ECR. Ladies and gentlemen, I represent the largest mountain regions, Silesia, and I think that I would like to briefly share some problems that concern us and I think that it should be an example of the fact that the establishment of a better law on the Commission, on the European Union and on the direction of this law on the side of the Trunk regions must be uniform. We are now in the process of transformation of the mountain region, which will take place in Węgla. We are preparing the transformation plan and we are talking with the government, with the members, with the residents. We have been doing this dialogue for a very long time and now there is a bit of information that one city or the whole sub-region may not be able to finance the Union on the basis that the transformation is due to the fact that the body over the regional or local concessions is not the right transformation. There shouldn't be such a place that we are building trust of our residents to the European Union through dialogue. And here this dialogue is missing at this moment. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mr. Bereni from the EPP for one minute. Thank you very much for the floor. I will speak in Slovak. Mr. President Mili Marosz, I am happy that Mr. President agreed that the future legal regulation should follow the principle of unity and should not be complicated in order for the policy of sustainability to strengthen the renewal and green transformation. We need regulations that do not burden people under some local or regional self-care. My second point, I welcome the initiative of the European Commission to discuss with representatives of the European Parliament about the future of the year. We are probably the closest to the common problem of every day. And after the third crisis connected with the arrival of the pandemic, the coronavirus again proved that the regions are playing an unimaginable role in dealing with serious things. And therefore we emphasize that the health and health care is a social infrastructure and an emergency help. Even now, the European Commission can help with the regulation. Thank you. And finally, last but not least, Mr. Burboli, for one minute from the EPP. Thank you. Dear Vice President, dear colleagues, I would like to address you an important subject that is closely related to EU policies, mostly in this year. Currently in Romania, we are facing a serious problem regarding the cohabitation with the large carnivores because the number of damaged caused by wild animals. This issue has started years ago about which we have a field petition to the European Parliament and also elaborated a COR opinion on the subject of coexistence with the large carnivores. Now the number of bear population has increased significantly 8% per year with 10 times higher number than the optimal relative to the forest area. We are facing more attacks and encounters than years before between victims in serious health conditions. It is an urgent situation and quick measures need to be taken. We need an urgent investigation on this matter. That is why I asked the Commission to analyze the situation of the carnivores in Romania and the implementation of the Habitas directive, given that articles 14 and 16 state very clearly that the human life and health are primordial. I also propose for the DJ environment to include the work program for 2022, the external meeting of the large carnivores platform to be organized in my country, Hargita County in Romania. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, Vice President Sefcovic, you have the floor for your reaction. Thank you very much, dear Mr. President and also all the honorable members of the Committee of Regions for your wide-reaching comments, suggestions and also questions and I will do my best to respond to you in an allocated time. I will start with the comments on the importance of the foresight and interconnection with RigHUB 2.0. First and foremost, I really would like to appreciate the fact that the Committee of Regions set up its own foresight capacities. I know that the Committee of Regions, the Secretary General, Mr. Bliszkowski are paying a lot of attention to these modern governance techniques and Committee of Regions is a very important part of this ESPAS network which is inter-institutional setup where all EU institutions are discussing the foresight topics and how we can use them in better policymaking and in better future oriented legislative work. I also would like to inform you that under the General Affairs Council of the EU, we formed the EU Wide Network with 37 Ministers for the future and it would be of course extremely welcome if we can link up with the foresight capacities on regional level as it was suggested by Mr. Berejny but also by other speakers because indeed we need to have very direct contributions how certain legislation is impacting the Regions but also how you see the Regions from the perspective of future term planning. Together with Mr. Armour and Mr. Ruyon, there was a question about the open strategic autonomy and indeed I think that latest assessment of what we did well where we didn't really manage so well when the crisis was published by the Commission a couple of days ago and one lesson was very clear if it comes to pharmaceutical products, if it comes to health issues we have to be much stronger than we have been in the past and therefore we started the work on Health Union. We will invest much more in biomedicine high level research and this new agency with the name of HERA and we see that production especially of vaccines across the Europe is being increased. We are actually the global major manufacturer and distributor of the vaccines clearly and without any dispute we are number one exporter of the vaccines to the whole world developed or developing and I agree with you that vaccination is the only key to COVID free future and there we also would need your help to accelerate the pace of vaccination especially in the countries or in the regions where the pace is slower currently the latest figures I have at our disposal is that we have 430 million doses delivered to the member states 350 million people who got already the first dose and we have almost 40% of our population who are fully vaccinated. So I think that we are on track as an EU to be at 70% level by the end of summer but we know that the numbers are quite differentiated and different if it comes to different regions and different member states and therefore I think outreach from your side highlighting the importance of this not only for health but also for the economic perspective and for the young people to come back to the normal life young people like to live I think is absolutely crucial and therefore I agree with Mr. Ortil and also with with other speakers who have been referring to these very important issues. Several of you touched upon that open strategic autonomy indeed we did our homework you would probably recall that my first foresight report was about resilience and now we are working on open strategic autonomy and we did very thorough analysis of 5200 products which we are importing to the EU we discovered that in more than 100 we are quite dependent and I think that in 6 we are very very dependent so the number doesn't seem to be so high but at the same time they are all in critical sectors and therefore we need to learn the lesson and to make sure that you will not kind of limit our freedom to act and we have to be strategically autonomous in the crucial areas of businesses and we are working very hard to achieve it as we demonstrated on vaccine productions medicament production or the field which I know quite well the batteries production and electro mobility. I also would like to appreciate all those positive encouragement in the field of conference on future of Europe. Here I think again we had a very good start now we have I think 18,000 people debating on the digital platform which was especially established for the communication among the citizens. I would just advise you have a look at it because it's a unique platform where we use artificial intelligence for interpretation and translation so Estonians can debate with Portuguese Slovakians debate with sweets in their own languages and I believe that this would be a very good communication tool also in the future let's say for even more fine-tuned consultations with the stakeholders. But what we feel right now is that we are kind of plateauing on this level of participation and we see that the dominant participants are coming from the global levels bubble and therefore you could help us a lot to bring the European debates to your region any event when you discuss the current or future policy please put it under the umbrella label of the conference of future of Europe. The principles are very simple. We just need you to send us the summary of the discussion and it would be I'm sure very welcome contributions when we will be making sure that we are working on the base from this which we are starting to really shape together the future of Europe for our citizens living in your regions. Help us to get the word out, help us to be them to be more involved. Then there was a lot of words on recovery and resilience plans and the need for the regions to be more included into the process. I totally agree with you. That's one of the key messages the president and all us commissioners are delivering when talking to the national authorities now we have more and more plans approved we have now the money to finance this refinancing as you know we had a very successful issuance of bonds I think it's more than 35 billion euros right now we got the sale for excellent conditions so we are really equipping Europe with very important financial tool but we need to demonstrate that we can spend this money efficiently. They go to the project which are needed which can kickstart our economies and for that of course we need the support of the regions and therefore we are calling on all member states to have inclusive debates for the local authorities to be part of these discussions because we need public support for these transformational changes we want to finance by this instrument and I see that I am also exceeding my time here so my last word would be to thank all of you who are participating in our future platform thank you for the work and looking forward to our future cooperation thank you very much the Apostles Thank you very much Maros it is again a great pleasure to have you here today with us I think we had a very interesting and fruitful discussion with our members here and I want to thank you Vice President Sef Szovic because you have been a real friend of the Committee of Regions and the supporter of our efforts here so thank you again and we are looking forward in continuing this strong collaboration together in the near future and have a safe continuation of your week let's hope that the pandemic will finally end and we will be able to meet in person as well thank you very much ok dear colleagues