 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues. It's a pleasure to be able to meet again, unfortunately again online because of the coronavirus pandemic measures. But it's always a pleasure to be able to work with you, even in a remote way. Let's hope that this is our last plenary that is happening virtually and that from the June-July plenary we will be able to meet in person. So let me quickly start with our two first points, the adoption of our agenda. If there are no comments, the agenda is approved. I see no comments, so it is approved. I will now proceed to the adoption of the minutes of the last, the 143rd plenary session that was held on 17-19 of March. Please note that a revised version of the minutes has been published on the member's portal after a request from Mr. Jopst-Hindrick, to correct his statement during the debate on EU matters for local and regional administrations. If there are no comments for the minutes, the minutes and the revised minutes are also adopted. Thank you very much. And we now move directly to our first debate for this plenary. It's our debate with Antonio Costa, the Prime Minister of Portugal. As you know, we are under the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union. So dear Prime Minister Costa, we are truly honored to have you with us today. As the previous Mayor of Lisbon and as a member of our committee, I'm just being told colleagues that the Prime Minister is not yet connected. So we will start in a little bit. Dear colleagues, I really welcome you, as I said earlier. To this fully remote plenary session, we will meet in this setting as long as the spread of the COVID-19 does not decrease and all of us can travel to Brussels safely. Some practical information regarding our debates, if your name is on the list of speakers or if you wish to take the floor, please remember to click on the raise hand button that is shown on your screen. Then wait until you are given the floor. When the moderator gives you the floor, the speak button lights up in blue. You should then press the speak button and the floor will be yours. The speak button will turn then in red. For this plenary, interpretation is provided from and into the 23 EU official languages. If you haven't chosen your preferred language for listening to debates, click on the audio channel selector on your screen and select your preferred channel. We will have five debates during our plenary now, with high level guests, including the Prime Minister of Portugal, Mr. Antonio Costa in a little bit. The President of the European Parliament, Mr. David Sassoli, the Commissioner for Equality, Dali, the Federal Minister of Agriculture of Austria, Kostinger, and of course several President of Associations like Hotrek, President Zimmer, Christensen. We will close our plenary with a debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe with the chair of our high level group on European democracy, Mr. Henland van Rompuy. I would like to draw your attention to the debate organized by our committee at the launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe, our event that will be broadcasted from Strasbourg on Europe Day, the 9th of May from 11 to 1, and the debate will discuss on how to build the House of European Democracy, and I really warmly invite all of you to participate online or in person, if possible, it's a hybrid meeting. On our agenda this week, we also have two resolutions and 13 opinions. The voting will take place electronically and will open with the vote on amendments tomorrow morning. Voting on final draft opinions, as amended, is scheduled to start on the last day of our plenary session in the morning. The voting results, as always, will be published on the members' portal as soon as possible after the end of the plenary. So, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, it's a great honour and a pleasure to welcome now the Prime Minister of Portugal, Mr. Antonio Costa, under the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union. So dear Prime Minister Costa, we are truly honoured to have you with us today. As the previous mayor of Lisbon and as a member of our committee, you have remained steady fast of your convictions, values and your roots. From championing cohesion policy to creating a more social Europe, you understand very well that our regions, our cities and villages, are indeed the foundations of Europe. And you also understand that when our regions, cities and villages recover, Europe will recover based on the shared values of solidarity, convergence and cohesion. So dear Prime Minister, today our debate will focus on issues that matter the most to citizens and local politicians, tackling the pandemic, ensuring a sustainable and inclusive social economic recovery in a social Europe and rebuilding a Europe closer to its people. Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on the adoption of the Recovery and Resilience Facility during your presidency. We also appreciate the attention given by the presidency's cohesion policy. This means exceptional investment for exceptional times reflecting European solidarity. Now we need to make this money work to protect the livelihoods and to relaunch our economies. Nevertheless, the European Committee of the Regions is seriously concerned that only a handful of member states have consulted locally and regional authorities in preparation of the national and resilience plans. To be effective and to deliver for our people, the EU's largest investment tools must complement each other. This requires a real partnership among EU, national, regional and local actors. We know we can rely on your full support to share this message because for a very simple reason, you have served this committee, you have been a local leader and you know what the added value of regions and cities can be for the European Union. The social summit in Porto at the end of the week will be a decisive moment. The effective implementation of the European Bill of Social Rights can only succeed if all levels of government, from European to local, are all involved, respecting the principle of active subsidiarity. The importance of local and regional dimension is also fully reflected in our draft opinion that is drafted at the request of the Portuguese presidency and to be adopted right after this debate. So this is our key message to the summit and we deeply regret that this regional and local dimension is completely missing from the declaration. Therefore, Prime Minister, we count on your support to reflect it in this declaration. Looking ahead to the conference on the future of EU, I confirm the readiness of the European Committee of the Regions strong commitment to strengthening the engagement of people to rebuild their trust in the European Union. As you know, we will also organize our own local dialogue on 9 of May in Strasbourg with the aim to launch the territorial dimension of the conference. So let's go beyond the EU capitals. Let's make the conference more than Brussels or a national capital's window dressing. Let's try to bring real change that strengthens European democracy and makes the Union become more tangible and present in our everyday lives. Dear Prime Minister, our house will always be your home. Today we also launched a network of former committee members and 165 former members were invited to join this plenary session. The network will help us to increase our political outreach including within the national level where many members play important political roles. I believe that this will also nourish our discussions about the functioning and the future of the Union because together we can bring Europe closer to people. So Prime Minister, I thank you again for accepting this invitation to be with us today. It's always nice to be around people who have served the local regional level and the European Committee of Regions. And so we really feel close to you and we consider you our colleague. Prime Minister, welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you President and if you don't mind allow me to address to you on my own language the Portuguese. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen members of the Committee of Regions, it is a special satisfaction that I return to this house, even though it is far away, from which I am proud to have been a member for several years, and beyond the friendships that I keep to this day, it was very important to understand the true richness of the European project. This committee is the mirror of this richness founded on diversity that unites us and around the values of a common design, which is the improvement of well-being and the quality of life of all our citizens. I also understand how important cooperation is between territories, between regions and cities to ensure social cohesion, without which there is no real European project. We live, we have disappointment, we have never expected to live, and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly the biggest challenge of our lives, both at the individual level as a collective, as a society and as a union. The social and economic consequences are already very visible. In just over a year, we have lost almost 700,000 lives, and more than 1,400,000 workers have found themselves in unemployment. The crisis has come to a high level, in some cases, to serve important vulnerabilities and social forces that persist, not only in member states, as well as in its interior, in different regions, cities and villages. But in the course of this crisis, it was equally visible the action of the European Union in all our countries, since the adoption of instruments of support for employment and economic activity, the purchase of a set of vaccines, the largest package of funders ever adopted, and which we hope to be able to put in place soon, with the approval of national plans for recovery and resilience. Also here, cities and regions will have a fundamental role to quickly achieve support for our citizens and our companies. The beginning of the vaccination process and the approval of the new generation's financial framework opened the door to hope. Portugal had the honor of taking the Council's presence at a decisive moment to make historic decisions that we adopted throughout 2020. And so, the motto that we chose as the motto of our presidency was time to act for a fair, green and digital recovery. This motto is well known as the three main priorities of the Portuguese Presidency, with which we have verified in recent months that they are widely shared by all. First of all, the social economic recovery raised in climate and digital transitions. Second of all, developing the European Union's social pillar, ensuring that this double transition does not leave anyone behind, and finally, reinforcing the European strategic autonomy open to the world. Allow me to develop each of these priorities a little bit. First of all, recovering and responding to the emergency of the present, but launching solid bases for the future. It obviously depends on the success of the vaccination process, so that we can return to safety the normality of our daily life. We have achieved a common approach from the European Union on the recognition of Covid-19 tests, using rapid and indigenous testing and the reception of travel within the European Union. Second of all, the European Union will receive 460 million vaccines during our presidency, which puts us on the right path to vaccinate 70% of the European adult population until the end of the summer. We are working on the adoption of a certified digital duty that facilitates the circulation within the European Union in a way that quickly supports economic recovery. At the same time, we have worked to put into action the programs of the plurinary financing with direct impact on our cities, on all levels of governance. I would particularly like to highlight the importance of cohesion policy, with which the European Union arrives every city, every village, every city, every mountain region, every territory in each city, every ultra-peripheral region. It is also important to accelerate recovery as well as the mobilization of the recovery fund, which is already in progress. We hope to conclude soon. There will be approval of the nationality of the member states, of the ratification of the decisions of the system of own resources and, at the moment, already more than 14 states have presented their national recovery and resilience plans. We are working very hard so that, having done the work previously with the European Commission, the Commission can now postpone the time and allow the worst times when these plans arrive to the ground as quickly as possible. For our part, we have already included in the order of the day the end of June 18 the approval of the first package of programs and we are ready to have an extraordinary end in the last week of June to approve a second package of recovery and resilience programs. The gravity of the crisis does not occur on any day and, therefore, we all have to make an effort to go faster so that these plans can be completed on the ground. We all know that recovery will only be successful at the level of the Union if it is also at the local level and it will only be possible through a decentralized implementation allowing this to be quickly and efficiently available and, at the same time, safeguarding an aligned response to the needs of the economic decision of each region and with respect to the initiatives of our citizens. The regions are performing a central role to guarantee the success of economic and social recovery. It is very important to have the presence that we have to ensure an attempt of this recovery and resilience program. For this to be possible it is not possible to go beyond the principle of multi-level governance because only a centralized execution will allow us to execute in such a short period of time this extraordinary program to ensure its synergy with the annual financial framework that we simultaneously have to launch. Therefore with the annual financial framework with the recovery program and resilience we are in good conditions to advance to the execution and fulfill this priority of economic recovery of Europe and for this it is essential that each region, each municipality, each village, each village be a capital city be an ultra-peripheral region Second priority of our presidency has to do with the need to reinforce the social pillar of the European Union. We all know that we have a huge societal challenge with the double transition green and digital We cannot waste time to achieve and fulfill these goals nor to take advantage of the opportunities that they provide us but we also know that these mutations put risks anguish on people here in Portugal we have already closed two coal stations shortly a oil refinery is being closed we all believe that the new economy will generate more and better jobs but it is necessary to ensure that those who will lose jobs and that the decarbonisation will generate have the opportunity to find a new job of better quality so investing not only in skills but in up-skilling, in risk-killing is absolutely central the same happens with the digital transition because we know that most of the work more repetitive more monotonous it is still good to be able to be subjected by machines but it is also necessary to ensure that no one is left behind and those who come to their post-work occupied by machines find new opportunities to continue their lives this means that we have to invest a lot in training not only in the side of the workers but also in the small and medium-sized companies we impose new environmental patterns and we have to know if they will have the capacity to respond to those environmental patterns those companies have to make new investments to be able to effectively take advantage of all the opportunities digitalised that is why we have to find a response to these companies because our entrepreneurial side the great wealth of our entrepreneurial side are not the great international brands they are not the great European champions Europe will only be a champion if it were to articulate well what is your great network of small and medium-sized companies and what makes an immense opportunity for the regional development of a more diverse way more diversified we need a mountain region we need anywhere in Europe it is precisely the space and the ease of access to the markets that the new digital tools provide instead of working for the small market in Aldea or for the regional market or even for the national market we need to work for the global market and now only the great brands have access this is an immense opportunity and that is why reaching the last priority of our strategic autonomy we would like that this strategic autonomy be designed in conjunction precisely with our territorial partners because they are the most sensitive to what should be the vision of Europe which is a strategic autonomy but which does not sacrifice nor the competitiveness within its internal market nor compromises the development of its small and medium-sized companies yes we need to be stronger in the global market we need to be stronger in the global market in this rich network of small and medium-sized companies if not we will have not less regional symmetries but greater regional symmetries we will have regions that will be even more because they are where the companies are located which would be the great representatives of Europe in the global market and we would have all the big regions in poverty to enter this competition now the strategic autonomy of Europe constructs as Europe decentralized in its regions in its municipalities in its cities in the background just look at the history of Europe Europe the cities are previous to the generality of our member states we know that our European civilization was born in the cities developed in the agricultural space and we are sure that it is precisely with the territories that we will be able to overcome this crisis and reopen the horizon of hope for our citizens what I learned while I was 8 years old with the president of the chamber fortunately I still did not forget and that is why I know what is a fundamental principle of the European Union and which is a sacred principle for the committee of regions the protection of the governing of several levels and the protection of the governing of several levels is not the governing of the interest of each municipality or of each region it is the governing of the interest of those for whom all of us whatever level of functions we are we have to work the European citizens thank you Mr. President it is with great pleasure that I could hear the interventions of the different members of the committee and then allow a short time to comment on some of these interventions thank you very much Prime Minister for your input for your thoughts on the Portuguese presidency and on the way the European Union should be working to strengthen its future and I thank you again for this first statement of yours and I would like to give the floor with no delay to Organt Geblevic on behalf of the EPP group Organt you have the floor we cannot hear you Organt there seems to be a problem so I would like to give the floor to Emil Bok from the EPP for two minutes Prime Minister you have the floor thank you Mr. President Prime Minister Costa a warm welcome to you from my side and the EPP group to this plenary session you said the Prime Minister on the signing of the agreement of the recovery and the resilience facility on behalf of the council that and I will quote you we are fighting for health and jobs at the present looking to the future this is the most innovative plan we have ever had to manage the most challenging crisis we have ever faced yes Prime Minister we are in front of a historical moment for our Europe to achieve a de facto solidarity of all Europeans and to move Europe to the next level of being together but according to the recent consultation only a minority of member states consult their local regional authorities in the preparation of the national recovery and resilience plan Prime Minister we can we cannot have a top down and centralizing resilience facility we appreciate the scheme is directly managed so Prime Minister what is your understanding of the scrutiny of national plans and concretely the legal requirements in the article 15 points free of the agreement on the recovery and resilience facility on member states summary of the consultation process and the implementation of the plan and how the inputs of the stakeholders are reflected in the plan one last point concerning the follow up of the vaccination campaign we believe that free movement is a fundamental right of European citizens those who have been vaccinated should not have restrictions imposed on them this is more important given the upcoming touristic period which must work for the benefit of the European economy we count on your support on this topic and Prime Minister if you can share with us your vision how and when could be prevented the green certificate of vaccination thank you very much Mr Bok I would like to give the floor to Olga Geblevich now from the EPP are you connected now is your sound on I guess not Christophe Rouillon from the PES group please after being an eminent member of the European Commission you have been able to access the highest responsibilities of your country while keeping the local fiber used in your sea functions and the strength of your convictions I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate your successor to the mayor of Lisbon our friend Fernando Midina to continue your fight by being a member very active of our institution and promotion of a European agenda for the sustainable housing dear Antonio you intervene today in front of us in your quality of Prime Minister of Portugal and President of the Council of the European Union for six months Portugal can already be proud of the social role of your presidency through the adoption of the Porto Declaration to our historical sense these declarations must not be understood as an advertisement for more social ambition indeed in the urgency of the management of this crisis this European ambition was at the time linked to a second plan we expect in particular the top of Porto to recognize the role of local collectivities in the implementation of the action plan on the pillars of the social rights we hope that the summit will give the final boost to end a directive on minimum wages if badly led as a crisis for pre-care employees we also ask that the last version of the Porto Declaration may include a goal numbered on the eradication of the sans-abrisme at the horizon of 2030 finally, we will have to pay special attention to the implementation of the guarantee for childhood beyond the summit of Porto we want to engage four fields the social Europe first, to prioritize the agenda of the conference on the future of the European Union how to react to the social cost of the pandemic especially concerning the precariousness of work or the questions of housing it will be essential to address these questions without taboo by opening perspectives of reforms of the policies of the European Union without limiting yourself to institutional questions second, to introduce a long-term unemployment insurance beyond the first response of the program SHUR 2020 third, to strengthen the social dimension in the implementation of the plan of European relaunch and the economic governance of the European Union we congratulate Portugal to have fulfilled the social objectives acquired by the plan of relaunch NEXT GENERATION EU but we must make sure that the European Commission has a social conviction in the framework of the famous and smokey European semester I have frankly almost fallen from my chair when I learned last week that the Commission had asked the Lithuanian to predict that the employees can work beyond the average life expectancy for men to know, 72 years Catherine is the last champion as mentioned, the position of the Belgian and Spanish the reform of the Pact of Stability and Growth for which a proposal should also be the opportunity to reflect on a better value of social investments such as the defense of Eliodi Roupour the Prime Minister of Wallonia also your compatriots Marguerita Marques and our friend Vasco Cordero who is the rapporteur of the European Commission Mr Prime Minister Cervantes we are very proud of you for your energy and your authenticity to give a clear perspective to the European project in return you can be assured of the support of the 100,000 European Territories represented by the European Commission of the regions Thank you for your attention and your answers See you soon Thank you very much Christophe I would like to give the floor to François Décoster Yes, hello Mr President Mr Prime Minister Dear Antonio, welcome to meet you again I had the pleasure to be a member of the CIVEX Commission under your presidency and then to succeed you at this CIVEX Commission so it is a great pleasure to meet you today two messages for the Reignio Europe group the first because we are a few days from the launch of the conference I would like to tell you that we count on you for a fair representation of the committee of the regions in the instances of the conference No doubt that it is not necessary to remind all the importance of the link that we form between the European Union and the citizens you know it better than me but we cannot deny the first proposal between the European Economic and Social Committee the European Committee of the regions and the civil society we received Monday Giver of Statt who heard this message we have created a possible participation of the committee at the time of 24 seats it would obviously be a better representation we have a lot of things to offer and to remind the additional tools that we have studied that we have proposed in our different works these different years I could talk about the Erasmus of the local and regional the development of a network of European Council in the municipal council at the European scale and then also to make the European Committee of the regions the European focal point of the network of collective association that is to say that we also need to have more means both financial and human to keep this role and a rule that will free is necessary a word of course in a few days of the social summit of Porto it is obviously a major point to be able as you wanted to organize a fair, green and digital relaunch it is the order social justice will be absolutely it will take over our economy after the Covid these priorities that I want to mention very quickly for our group the fight against all discrimination the group has been very committed in terms of some discrimination related to sexual orientation in a certain number of state members lately the balance between professional life and family life the sharing of tasks in the same camp the fight against the inequalities salary and remuneration between women and men which is an iconic site and then the promotion of an active third age learning throughout life and of course access to all to digital education we share your ambitions the social summit of Porto arrives at the right time to do it thank you Mr Prime Minister for you on these two topics thank you very much François the Flona to Ladislas Portil from the ECR group please Dear Prime Minister Welcome to the name European Conservatives and Reformers Poland in which I come share many thousands of kilometers from Portugal but the relations in the European Union are very good I think this is the result of a similar stage of economic development we have similar problems but we can say that they also connect us to the challenges related to geopolitics I will remind you that the eastern European border is the Polish border and the western European border is, of course, Portugal from the beginning of Europe we know that we have to look for understanding and common relations not only with our closest neighbors but also with those who are far away from us in the sense of geographical one of the few highlighted priorities of the Portuguese president is the issue of pressure on relations with Africa the ECR group in the European Parliament was organized two weeks ago the next summit of the African Union one of the conclusions was the call of the European Union to support the unity of the territorial government in Africa as a effective method to fight the pandemic which, of course, has a place there I would also like to show the second run i.e. the situation in the east hospitals in Ukraine are full in the last month over 100,000 people most of them from the outbreak of the pandemic Ukraine is sorry, Mr. President sorry but I don't have any translation and I'm sorry and I don't understand Polish I think after the English translation I would like to finish the help of the Union for Ukraine and the previous campaign and some regions share the support of bilateral medical equipment and I think this help should be continued Mr. Prime Minister I would like to I would like to address the question of the EU EU and the EU and the EU and the EU and the EU and the EU and the EU and the EU Thank you very much Mr. Ortil, our staff could help the staff of the prime minister to maybe explain what Mr. Ortil was saying when the translation was interrupted, and I would like to give the floor now to Bernat Soleil Baril from the EA Group, please. Thank you very much President Sisi-Costas, I appreciate the Prime Minister and the Council of the Union in the name of the European Alliance, I thank you for your participation in this debate. The future of Europe is guaranteed by the social rights of the citizenry. We are also convinced that this objective will only be achieved if the US actors are in the centre because we have a greater proximity and, consequently, knowledge of citizen needs. Territories like Catalonia ask us to be protagonists of the future action plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights. We are clear that social policies must be seen as a future investment and must ensure that no one is excluded. Some considerations in representation of the Government of Catalonia in relation to central elements of the European Pillar of Social Rights. In the first place, the eradication of poverty must be a clear priority, and for this, a first objective of minimums must be to reduce in 15 million the number of people at poverty risk, including at least 5 million children and children in harmony with the aim of sustainable development in the number one of the United Nations 2030 agenda. In the second place, we support the reinforcement of the youth guarantee to promote the integration of young people in the labor market. The Spanish state is still the leader of youth poverty in Europe with almost 40% of young people without work. This is a future hypothesis and we must face it with all confidence and implication. And in the third place, the future demographic challenges make it essential to prioritize the policies of care with a gender perspective, ensuring personal autonomy and with a model that prioritizes that our greater people spend as much time as possible in their own environment. We face major challenges as major are the objectives and intentions of this presidency of the European Union Council. Europe is above all a social and shared project. We hope that the contribution of this weekend will serve as a point of infliction on the way to a more social Europe. Thank you very much. But I like the idea to address you as one of us as a former mayor of Lisbon and vibrant European capital with extraordinary traditions of inclusiveness. The EPP welcomes the attention that your presidency devotes to the European pillar of social rights. We are also very much looking forward doing our part in the forthcoming Porto Summit. We fully endorse the goals of Porto's presidency in that context as well as the very ambitious three headline targets for the EU to be achieved by 2030. Regions and cities know the best tools and policy measures to make this ambitious succeed. In our Christian Christian democratic family, we believe that economic competitiveness, social progress and subsidiary must be balanced in competitive European social market economy. In post COVID EU, we intend to contribute to the create social economic ecosystems where labor market meets mobility where the best possible opportunities are offered to our youth, where SMEs and self employment workers can contribute to business models that go hand in hand with a cohesive social standards. This will inevitably happen in the context of the two great revolutions of our times. Green and digital revolutions using creativity to establish new synergies and far looking blends between different budgetary tours at our disposal. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much. Orgid, the floor now to Satu Hapanen from the Greens. Dear President, Prime Minister, it's a great pleasure to be here today and address to you. We are living very exciting times when the conference on the future of Europe will be open on Sunday and we are all doing our best in order to have a more democratic, more positive battery Europe. The pandemic has been especially for children and youth who have largely lost their education for quite a long time and also for social contacts. And I think that in order to have a strong Europe, now it is time to put all the efforts and input in finding the means to fill the gaps in learning and to make our children use strong again and to equip them with the knowledge that is needed in the future as well. So let's take care of our children. Dear President, Prime Minister, I think that I would like to ask Mr Prime Minister now that what is your opinion? To what extent member states will really introduce reforms as recommended in the European semester in their national plans of the RRF? And to what extent can local and regional voices be heard in this process? As long as there are people who cannot feel that they are heard and that their voices are not taken seriously, as long as there is no strong Europe. So I think now we all want to make an effort and work hard to make Europe more democratic, more strong in taking into account the diversity in our people, in our citizens. Thank you, Mr President. Thank you, Sato. I would like to give the floor now to our first Vice President Vasco Cordeiro. Thank you, Apostolos. Mr Prime Minister, it is a honour and a pleasure for the Committee of Regions, for all of us, for all members of the Committee of Regions. It is a honour and a pleasure to have you here with us. The Portuguese presence faced many and great challenges and already achieved many and great results. On the other hand, this was the case when President Tsitsikostas mentioned, among other issues, the question of the mechanism of recovery and resilience and the attention given to poetry politics. The fact of being here with us today, with one of the most intense weeks of the Portuguese presidency, the fact that, allied to its course, shows its real commitment in this Committee and in the regional dimension of the European Union democracy. I would like to address three or four aspects that seem fundamental at the moment. The first of them has to do exactly with this. This was one of the first times that the European Council doors were opened to us. The program of the Portuguese presidency aims to promote the principles of subsidiarity and governance at several levels, encouraging the collaboration of regional and local intervenants to participate more in the decisions and policies and the face of them. This is what the Committee of Regions aims for. It is also this that we have just witnessed in its initial intervention an authentic manifesto, as well as the importance of local and regional powers in the concretization of a Europe that is of all. This vision of the functioning of democracy in the European Union needs to be repeated, needs to be replicated not only at the level of the various bodies of the Union, but also in future Presidencies of the European Union. This week, and so I enter in the second aspect, this is the week of the Port Conference, where I have the honor of representing the Committee of Regions and also the week of the informal summit. The fight against Covid-19 and its global impact becomes even more experimental, even more current, and even more necessary, this approach to the European Union's social pillar. The leaders of the Union waited three years after Gutenberg to take all the policies of the European Union in a social dimension. Thanks to the Portuguese presidency, the wait was no longer long. And that is why this initiative of the realization of the social pillar, especially by highlighting the aspect of the intervention that local and regional powers can have in the concretization of this pillar. I would like to have the respect to see with the conference about the future of Europe and the commitment and commitment that local and regional authorities also have with it. Finally, the question of the ultra-preferential regions is grateful to remember everyone that they are a regional, European and unique reality and that the Portuguese presidency has in mind. Thank you very much, Prime Minister, thank you very much. Thank you very much, Vasco. So Prime Ministers, as you see, we have too many things in common. I mean, other than your membership until now, until recently to the Committee of the Regions, we now have our first Vice President being Portuguese as well. And we are really having a fantastic collaboration this Monday with Mr. Cordeiro. So I would like to give the floor now to Ann Kargilainen, who is also the rapporteur for the implementation of the pillar of social rights. She will also be the last speaker in this first round. Ms. Kargilainen. Good afternoon, Prime Minister. I would like to thank the President of Portugal for giving the opportunity to the Committee of the Regions to the European Social Rights Council to implement the pillar of social rights from local and regional point of view. The pillar of the full implementation of the European right to rights is the one that protects all nationalities and which is enshrined in all of the Union. You have been one of us, Mr. President of Lisbon, and you know that the majority of the nationalities are open to social responsibility. We have an important role to play, and I would like to give the floor to the members of the Social Rights Council to the majority of the nationalities in 2030. We are giving the full to these goals, but we are defending that the majority of the population is not limited to the majority. We also remember that the role of the public in the areas and in the areas is the role of the public. That is why we are providing enough financial resources to ensure that we invest in social, digital and digital infrastructures. The pillar of the European Social Rights Council to the full implementation of the European right to rights is the one that protects all nationalities in the European constitution. The goal of the Social Rights Council is to provide a comprehensive solution to all of these goals, which is a good point for the people and to ensure that the majority of the population is supported by the politicians and that the social questions are answered consistently in the European Union. I hope to make the two-day call to Portugal to the full implementation of the European right to rights and the full implementation of the European right to rights. Thank you very much. I give the floor now to you, Prime Minister Costa, for your reaction to what our members just said. I think it is time for you to take the floor. Thank you. Thank you, President. I would like to thank all of you for the words and, in particular, the pleasure that I had to see and explain with whom I had the pleasure of working. First of all, I am very happy to share the total priority to the development of the social pillar of the Social Rights Council in Europe. It is very important, and it is very important, that in the European semester, there will be a set of indicators that do not limit themselves to the macroeconomic stability, but that also account for the social realities and social goals assumed by all of us. We take a very important step here with the transformation of principles and genres into an action plan. I hope that on the eve of next Friday it is possible, for the first time in the history of the European Union, to see an international tripartite that led to the establishment of the European Commission and the European Parliament, the representatives of the European Trade Union Confederation and the Business Europe and, still, the representation of the civil society. It is a very big step, because it means, in fact, the mobilization of the whole city for the fulfillment of this action plan. And I am confident that on Saturday it will be possible, the Council, in a comfortable way, to give a strong political endorsement to the discussion of this action plan. This action plan seeks to be comprehensive, specifically related to the subject of housing and specifically also to the subject of unemployment. It is true that there is no concrete goal. The option of the European Commission, I perceive, was not to multiply quantitative goals, but to concentrate on three fundamental quantitative goals, one on employment, another on education and another on the reduction of poverty. But I will not let the Commission or the Council this point of view clearly expressed here that there is also a quantitative goal as to the reduction of unemployment. Still, on the other hand, on the other hand, the second type of issues that were predominantly put have to do with the role of local communities. Yes, I propose that it is still included in the commitment to sign on Friday in the final declaration a message about the role of local communities in implementing this action plan, in addition to more because, not only for my previous experience, but I would even say more, for my current experience, I have no doubt that the local communities are fundamentally in the fight of proximity to poverty. On the other hand, there are issues about the elaboration and the content of the recovery and resilience plans. As for the content, there is a question about the representative of the green Satur Hapen, which has to do with the inclusion of reforms in the recovery and resilience plan. The plan is a combination of investments and reforms, and reforms that aim to respond to the recommendations specific to each country in the European semester exercise. I believe that here we find a way that simultaneously gives coherence to the use of the European semester and, on the other hand, respects the national autonomy in the choice of its own policies. Portugal has a great experience in this matter because, as I said before, it was subject to the control of the Troika and the inclusion of reforms that the country had to implement. We had, after several years, completed the program of the Troika, there were recommendations that we could even agree on, we even wanted to do so, but we did not have the funds to be able to do so. I think that here we have a model that is an interesting model in which each member state can contract with the Commission the reforms that are made, the goals and the marks of its execution and obtain the financing for it to be possible. A recurring recommendation, for example, relative to Portugal, was the need to improve the qualifications of the adult population. It is essential for our workers to be able to face trust, climate transition and, above all, digital transition. Now, in our program of recovery and resilience, we will have verbs that will finally allow us to fulfill this goal of preparing for our active population that is a generation that did not have the opportunity to go to school as, unfortunately, the new generations already have according to the community and may not be lost for a while, may not be left behind but, on the contrary, may be active citizens and participants in the construction of our future. Therefore, I do not see it as a problem, I see it as an opportunity for everyone to know how to use with the indispensable good sense. Another question that was put at the beginning is to see that the greater development of local collectivities in the design of the recovery and resilience plans I do not know and do not know yet how each member did it. In the case of Portugal, where we started with the two ultra-peripheral regions to remember that 10% of the plan intentionally corresponds to the population of these regions in the total population of the country would be located in the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Autonomous Region of Assortes that have elaborated their own plans of course according to those that are the European rules and that are integrated in our national plan but were developed by the respective regional authorities. On the other hand, we have a large part of our program that will be counteracted to its discussion with local collectivities For example, in the room we of about 14,000,000 euros of our plan 2,750,000,000 will be located in the room part for the population of the area for the accessible room to the middle class and in particular to the new generations and these verbs will be executed by the municipalities through their municipal strategies of housing because they are the municipalities that are in better conditions obviously than the State to respond to the needs of housing in each of its territories. In another fundamental dimension of climate transition is that the municipalities that we are working on to counteract them wants the programs to improve energy efficiency in buildings wants to decarbonize the transport taking into account that it wants the development of public transport networks wants the need for charging networks for electric vehicles all of this depends on municipal skills and therefore we are here essentially mediators in the transfer of verbs so that the municipalities can execute their programs and also in the social domain we have an important verb dedicated to the continued care for the elderly population wants the network networks to favor a greater participation in the work market with the best construction and professional, personal and family life and articulation with all the civil entities to develop these institutions will be done naturally through the municipalities as there are for the two metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto a specific contractualization of programs of combat poverty in these urban areas depressed that this pandemic revealed in fact areas of enormous fragility and that being regions more developed that usually cannot be supported in the scope do not leave regions also where the intensity of the poverty presents itself in a very relevant way and therefore we will counteract with the two metropolitan areas two programs of combat there are specific poverty in these regions therefore are examples of what was our methodology what is our solution I cannot guarantee that this is the way it has been in all states some other issues that were more specific first, green certificate as you can imagine a country where tourism has the weight of the economy in Portugal obviously for us this has been my priority the next trial for the next third week our expectation and we hope not to be optimist is that we can have a final with the European Parliament at the end of May and and it is essential because if we want tourism to be a source of economic reanimation already in this summer it is essential to be a source of this certificate and also to guarantee to European citizens that today we will gain natural immunization because of the disease and fortunately they are recovered or because of those who have already acquired immunity due to vaccination or those who test in the previous 72 hours have negative tests can access this certificate and therefore we recommend the freedom of circulation which is a fundamental brand of our union and I think and I think I answered all the questions I managed to take the note asking many apologies to Mr. Hortil for not being able to listen to your intervention but unfortunately it was only possible to establish after your intervention the translation mechanism and therefore sorry but I could not hear what he said and therefore I could not answer thank you very much Mr. President and thank you all for the questions and good luck thank you very much Prime Minister we will proceed now we have seven more interventions of one minute each and I will give the floor to Mr. Hortil because he wants to ask you a specific question and six more speakers of one minute each Mr. Hortil you have the floor Mr. Prime Minister ladies and gentlemen I would like to appreciate the activity of the President of Portugal in connection with the activities and relations with Africa the European European Parliament was organized two weeks ago the top of the United Africa and one conclusion was that supporting one of the territorial units in Africa is a effective method to fight the pandemic but we would also like to say that the neighboring Ukraine also has great problems with Covid-19 hospitals are full in recent times almost 100,000 people were in hospitals Ukraine is especially in a difficult situation it must save both people who suffer during the pandemic but also those who suffered because of the war with Russia let me notice our neighbors our neighbors I think it's always good to emphasize and look for common understanding not only with the closest neighbors but also with those who are far away from us and I think I would also like to wish Mr. Prime Minister to work in the port which will bring strengthening of the labor law but at the same time will not limit the competition of any member countries I think it's a difficult compromise but knowing Mr. Prime Minister it should work and I wish you all the best Thank you very much Mr. Rotil The floor now to Piero Mauro Zanin for one minute Mr. President Mr. President Mr. Prime Minister in the absence of the plans of resilience there are four important aspects the first is the re-activation of the social elevator that is the ability that the interventions allow our children to be better than us what has been blocked in the last years and what is necessary until we have to invest in Mr. Prime Minister are the relaunch of the local manufacture that is the ability to form and activate financial resources that are finalized at the intersection between industry 4.0 between the ecological transition the green deal and the energy transition the last point is the new territorial initiative the pandemic has left us in a different direction through tele-work this allows us to manage the urban centers and bring the work to the interiors allowing them a new development and also a new start Thank you Mr. President Thank you very much Thank you very much Thank you very much Thank you Mr. Prime Minister Mr. Prime Minister Mr. Prime Minister Antonio, your priority to access a job and social protection joins the fight of the European Socialist Party and we support them with determination allow me to draw your attention on the directions that seem to want to take the commission from next year according to several sources a great internal pressure to the commission is being played for as soon as possible budgetary rules for and by each member but I think that we will need 2022 or 2023 to take national, regional, local measures that will complete the measures of the European Union and it will cost a lot of money to return to a policy of austerity and excessive budgetary constraints it would be a disaster to see a cataclysm on the job plan that you defend very precisely as soon as the Prime Minister is counting on you and your personal prestige so that we can avoid a return of austerity Thank you very much Prime Minister Carlos Aguilar for one minute please Rafa Traskowski for one minute please Good afternoon Thank you very much for this opportunity to exchange points of view I am representing also the Committee of the Regions when it comes to the Green Pact but now of course we are talking mostly about the recovery instrument and resilience instruments and we have on numerous occasions talked about a danger of over centralization of the recovery fund and we need the ownership we need the involvement of local and regional authorities and unfortunately that hasn't been a case but the equivalent is a good case in point I mean most of the money for the local and regional authorities will come as loans not as grants and I would like to ask you very much to oversee the process of accepting the local plans of recovery because we need to make sure that the question of ownership is taken seriously and that local and regional authorities are consulted and they haven't been consulted so far there is no positive opinion in the state so please do it thank you very much thank you very much Rafal the floor now to Peter Kaiser please for one minute the regional level still has to be much stronger than before with the use of the funds the social and the economic dimension have to have the same value again as the ADR report to the guidelines for appropriate minimum loans I welcome especially their efforts to the implementation of the European Social Law we emphasize that in our February with large majority distributed that the minimum strong social they prevent advertising set a suitable life for the worker and support the equality of the poor from the social level in Porto we expect concrete results for the European minimum the most important initiative in the framework of the new EU social policy all good for and congratulations to the excellent government presidency thank you very much the floor to Carlos Aguilar please for one minute ok so our final speaker for today is Guido Wolff please for one minute the conference to the citizens and the EU can bring in their opinions and also the regional and communal levels over national parliament their chambers and the outskirts of the regions in the plenar collection only that creates the we need I am also sitting with Capulos Santos the plenum is not allowed to have a pure discussion forum but it must be a protection guarantee especially the voices of the parliaments and the regions of the conference we have in Baden-Württemberg with a live image with appropriate experiences we would like to thank you very much for your support and I also would like to thank you for your great support in the conference on the future of Europe you have been of great help for the Committee of the Regions and for the regional and local administrations for our representation and they really thank you so Prime Minister Costa I think we have reached the end of this very interesting debate on behalf of the members of the European Committee of the Regions and I would like to give you the floor for your last remarks if you have any please Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister Prime Minister from that moment on, to a more and more aggressive approach to the global scale, because none of us will be truly safe, while all of us humans are not incredibly safe, while we cannot eradicate this pandemic. While it is going on, we will always be at risk. That is why we are working hard. We are one of the few vaccine producers who have never suspended the export of vaccines. We have had a very strong participation at the level of Covax. Bilaterally, several member states have reinforced their contributions. We have reserved 5% of the total of vaccines that we have acquired to access the African countries of the Portuguese official language. Other member states have made another similar effort. But once we are able to reach the immunity of the group, we cannot forget what happens to the rest of the world, because otherwise, sooner or later, we will be attacked. In addition to the fact that the virus will continue to circulate, it will continue to vary, and at this point, we will have new viruses after which we, ourselves, are no longer immunized. And therefore, if we want to protect ourselves, we must be aware that we have to fight for immunization at a global level. About the new work opportunities, yes, they exist, and we have to know how to take advantage of these new work opportunities. We have to take into account that they are the old work opportunities that disappear, and that we have to know how to manage this transition without being certain that there are people of their age who are no longer in any condition to do it, and therefore we have to have a strong social reputation that guarantees that no one is left behind. And the other reality that this pandemic has made it particularly evident is that many of these new work forms also need new ways of regulation. New work forms also imply new forms of application of the right to work. The tele-work was a fantastic tool for everyone, but obviously the tele-work must also be regulated. One of the greatest historical achievements of the workers who will have a working schedule cannot disappear from the tele-work. And therefore it is essential to find new ways of regulation. The work on the digital platforms must be done by all stakeholders who, truly, who rides a bicycle to disobey house-to-house fees is not an individual entrepreneur. It is simply an ultra-prone worker who cannot be in a precarious situation where he meets and has to face a situation of obviously well-known labor. When we say that we want to get out of this crisis stronger, more resilient, it also means that we have to get out of a situation of less precariousness in the labor markets because it is very evident that they are a huge fragility for Europe in times of crisis. I wanted to give a very special one to my friend Elio de Rupio and the question that came up. Well, at the moment the agreement has already been established that in 2022 it remains suspended the stability pact. There is also a general agreement that we should not be in a hurry to remove the mechanisms of economic support in a way that does not necessarily precipitate any country in a crisis and will slowly build a consensus, more on the academic level than on the political level, that we must take advantage of this end of the year 2021 and the first semester of 2022 to make a reflection on the lessons we have to take from the rules we live in the stability pact and growth after two crises. We have already seen two crises with this pact. It is perhaps the time to make a reflection, serene, without dramas as they have existed in the past, but with the experience that we all have acquired. I think that this experience, in the end, even for those who do not really assume it, was expressed at the moment, with the advice of unanimity, approved the proposal of the Commission of the creation of a plan of recovery and resilience as original as this one. Well, if circumstances were ultra-sessionals, it is obvious that none of it was established, none of it was preceded, but there was a demonstration that there was someone who had learned enough with the situation of the previous crisis and I think there will be space in the next few months so that this debate can go deeper. Well, as the question is put by the president of the Varsovia camera, I am worried, obviously not only to see that local authorities are important for the execution of the plan, as an access to the funds for the execution of the plans is important and that it does not mean that in an unequal way, because, therefore, when it comes to local authorities, there should be an opening to participate at the level of the budget, but not at the level of the subventions. And this, indeed, introduces here a very relevant inequality factor that leaves me here preoccupied. Mr. Keiser put the question of the directive about the minimum wage. It is one of the most difficult questions that we have in mind, not only because there are countries that are against the existence of the minimum wage, but because there are countries that, in a social sense, do not conceive a minimum wage that does not result from the social dialogue. It is one of the most interesting debates to reveal what is cultural diversity that exists in our Union today, which is normal. We are no longer six countries that organized themselves to create a common market of coal and steel. Today we are 27 countries with very diverse social dialogue traditions and very diverse working norms. And, curiously, these are the countries that we are all used to consider as pharaohs of a European social model, those that have the greatest difficulty in accepting that there is some legislative intervention or the political order, in the definition of the minimum wage, because it means that this is a matter absolutely exclusive to social partners. Each country has its own tradition. For example, in Portugal, since always, the minimum wage was fixed by law, social partners do not want more than to be heard and they never wanted to have an agreement about the minimum wage. It is precisely the opposite of what happens in the Nordic countries. Therefore, we have to see how we are compatible with a directive with these differences, it is certain that a directive forces results, not forces, as well as the means. And, therefore, we are not talking about a regulation that forces no one, whoever wants to change what are their social practices. Finally, about the final intervention, the participation of the Committee of Regions in the Conference on the Future of Europe was one of the first successes that our Presidency was able to obtain while achieving an international agreement that allowed to break the impasse in which we were blocked. And it will be a great pleasure for me on the next Sunday with the Presidium, with David Sassoli and Ursula van der Leyen to open a meeting with the Committee of Regions on the Future of Europe. And the participation of the Committee of Regions is very important because it is fundamental that this its participation but the most important thing would be that its participation is to ensure that the Conference on the Future of Europe is not something that is developed exclusively in Brussels or in the great capitals. If we want the Conference on the Future of Europe to be a debate not between the institutions but of the citizens, the citizens and the citizens it is fundamental that the regional authorities, local municipal authorities organize these debates and mobilization of society to discuss the future of the future of Europe and I think that it will enrich a lot and above all it will remove the debate of that Brussels bubble where they discuss many times things that very little have to do with the daily life of the citizen it doesn't even have to do with the life of a Chamber President or even of a Prime Minister and that I can bring the Conference to those who truly believe that it is what each European citizen the common European citizens have as aspirations for their future and where they identify that the European Union can be the most effective for the realization of your dreams and to respond to your anguish. President Thank you very much for this invitation to have this dialogue with the members of the Regions Committee. Thank you very much Prime Minister Kosta I thank you not only for your presidency these days in the European Union but I also thank you for being here today with us sharing your views your ideas your vision and it is true Prime Minister that we have done a lot of work as regional and local leaders throughout this pandemic and now we will be in the forefront also of the recovery process and this is something that you understand quite well being former local leader and former member of the Regions that we can bring another value to Europe because simply we have the trust of the people as well on the ground and at the same time we know how to solve issues and how to make things go quicker in our regions using all the characteristics of its region in a better way and I really want to thank you for being a convinced European and for your great work in Portugal I also want to welcome once again the former members of the Committee of the Regions who are invited in this meeting in this plenary and who are attending our session for the launch of their new network within the Committee of the Regions House and I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this very good relation that we have and this work that we have been doing with the presidency of the Portuguese presidency because I really believe that your presidency comes at a very crucial moment for Europe and for the regions of the cities of Europe so thank you very much again for your presence, for your involvement for your work thank you all the best for you Mr President, thank you thank you we will meet on Sunday in Strasbourg I will see you there all the best, thank you very much all the best so dear colleagues after having had this very interesting debate with Prime Minister Costa from Portugal I would like now to announce that we are going to a small break and we will reconvene at 4.30pm Brussels time in 25 minutes from now exactly for our debate with the President of the European Parliament David Sasoli see you in 25 minutes thank you