 To resume now our plenary session with the debate on the energy crisis and consequences for European households with our guest speakers, Marian Jurejka from the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic will be with us online. Liliana Pavlova, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, who we have the honor and the pleasure to welcome to our session, Christian Silvio Bursoy, Chair of the Committee on Industry Research and Energy of the European Parliament, Mohamed Ridwani, Mayor of Leuven, and Rafal Traskowski, Chair of our ENVE Commission. Thank you all for having accepted our invitation. But let me stress that the situation we are facing has a two-direction impact, not only about the households, not only about citizens, but also about our administrations with the pressures that are put in the need to deliver and the way to perform in our budgets, too. So while the EU leaders are having very relevant discussions on overarching measures to ensure the EU energy security and address the systemic issue of the energy market, let us not forget the need to actions to relieve the pressure on citizens and also on local and regional authorities. With this debate, we intend to have the opportunity to discuss this issue and the possible ways forward with both institutional representatives and fellow local and regional representatives. So it is now my pleasure, I think, is online right now to welcome Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Marjan Jurečka, you have the floor for, I would suggest, five minutes. Dear Mr. President, thank you very much for giving me the floor, and thank you for this invitation to the Committee of the Regents. It is a great honour for me, and I apologise for not being able to be with you in person, because today the Parliament is in session and I have to be there. So I would like to greet you remotely, and I am very happy that I can address you representatives of the Regents and Cities of the whole of the European Union, because we are faced with a number of challenges. And one of the most pressing challenges is energy security, the prices of energies and their impact on households and on the public sector, on cities, districts, public services. And of course, it affects enterprises, companies as well, and that can have a secondary effect on the unemployment in our countries in the next couple of months or years. The slogan of the Czech presidency is Europe as a task. We had no idea how urgent and topical this slogan would be. And I think that we all need to realise that we have to provide realistic solutions as to how to cope with this energy crisis. In the European Union, we took upon us a number of steps. We have full tanks of gas, and we are dealing with the issue of replacements for supplies from Russia, and I think here we've been quite successful. We're also, on the European level, discussing the questions regarding the ceilings for gas and gas prices, but that is for our energy experts to decide. But here we are dealing with some key issues. First of all, we need to educate people and discuss with them. The mayors of cities are close to our citizens. They understand each other, and we need to be able to tell them we know how to help you reduce our energy consumption, how to provide you with investments for insulations of your houses, public buildings. You need to look into renewable energies, photovoltaic, wind energy, complex utilisation of biomass or geothermal energy. Energy solutions locally can bring more energy security for our citizens, for affordable prices. Community energy is also important, and I'm very happy that throughout the European Union we are managing to strengthen this community energy resource, which provides more stability, creates resources for affordable prices. We are also faced with another challenge, and that is the protection of certain vulnerable groups. We have to show these groups where they can apply for various allowances or support so that older people, widows, widowers or handicapped people can find where to go. These people sometimes don't receive relevant information. They don't know how to interpret this information, and they don't know where to apply for it. Here new representatives of cities and districts have a special role, and you have to collaborate with the non-governmental sector, which will assist you in providing people with information relevant for them. Then we have investments, particularly in vulnerable regions affected by coal mining. Transformation funds in individual countries allow us to target investments. So when abandoning coal, we can do so successfully without a social impact on regions who have already been affected within the past decades. And here we've already encountered solidarity in Europe, common solutions which allow us to cope well with this transformation in affected regions. I know that these are issues that cause concern, but it is up to us, up to politicians, to let people know that we have rational solutions, that they have been well thought through, that we have sufficient funding for them, and that we know how to mitigate their worries. That this helping hand will not mean that they will find themselves in poverty, in energy poverty. Quite the contrary, that once we abandon the resources of the Putin regime, we in the mid and long term will have a strong outcome, and our households and our companies will receive better conditions. Hopefully, and I'm convinced of that, we will manage to achieve these challenges, overcome them within the next couple of months and years. Thank you very much for your work. I would like to thank the President, Cordier, and the head of our National Delegation Roman Linek for being able to present some of the steps we are taking. Thank you and I hope this will be successful for us all and our citizens. Now it's my pleasure and honor to give the floor to Liliana Pavlova, Vice President of the European Investment Bank. You have the floor for five minutes. Thank you very much, the President, the members of the Committee of the Regions, the colleagues, friends, and fellow speakers. First of all, it's really a great pleasure for me finally to be in person with you because for the last few years we were having our meetings and interactions mainly online. So I want to start by expressing my gratitude for this opportunity and for this invitation to be here today with you. I believe in the past few years we've managed to not only intensify our relationship between the Bank and the Committee of the Regions, but indeed our cooperation and partnership flourished and we had excellent opportunities to have more informal gathering, study visit, which was held this year, and I strongly believe we can even further intensify and strengthen our so far excellent cooperation. And now, thank you once again for being able to participate in this debate today because the topic is of critical importance, as you already mentioned, because we are living in highly uncertain times with rising energy and food prices and extreme volatility and the European customers are struggling to pay their bills, poorer house codes are being affected disproportionately, and the EU response, the EU response is strong, but it needs to be unified, you know, if we are together by joining forces to go through this energy crisis along which we are, of course, unfortunately facing many other different challenges or crises and challenges coming on top of each other. So rather than rethinking our strategic direction, the current road, the Russia's unprovoked aggression on Ukraine and the impact over European cities and regions has shown once again that Europe must invest even more and even faster in green and digital transformation. And the Repower EU plan already recognizes this as it builds on the European Green Deal, on fit for 55 package, but accelerating the transition is even more important today, and I'm glad to say that for us, the European Investment Bank is EU bank, but as also as EU climate bank, this is also one of our main priorities and main drivers. And in order to provide the necessary support, we do have so-called climate bank roadmap adopted for the period 21-25, where we are clearly outlining what and how we can support, how we can complement the efforts. The first and the most important priority for us is to be able to mobilize and to support one trillion euros of green investments by 2030 globally and regionally. And we believe we can make a crucial contribution to Repower EU in order to help strengthening the energy security and making Europe hopefully soon less dependent on fossil fuels. We do have a very solid track record in supporting the EU's energy sector with average amount of 10 billion per year so far in the past decade, but since and since the adoption of our 2019 new energy lending policy to strengthen our role as EU climate bank, we are now focusing our investments in energy sector, in mainly in energy efficiency, renewable energy, electricity network infrastructure and all areas where the investment needs are the highest. So now we are planning to even further step up our efforts in supporting just and fair transition and green transition of the regions in support of Repower EU package. What we did in October, we approved a package of new targeted EAB group financial support package at the amount of 30 billion euro on top of what Repower EU package consists of in order for us to be able in the next five years to support the Repower EU package deployment, to support cities and regions and our promoters and beneficiaries in three main areas because our additional financing is focused on three pillars. First pillar is sustainable energy where we would like to promote more investments in renewable energy and energy infrastructure. Second pillar, a very important one is energy efficiency and energy transition. And the third pillar is green innovation, including here I want to emphasize investments in low carbon hydrogen. And maybe let me focus only on energy efficiency because I strongly believe that energy efficiency is key if we are to reduce the fossil fuel dependence and imports and to support managing the situation with the energy bills because investing in energy efficiency is a smart economics. So we do have developed special financial products and facilities supported by our in-house financial and technical advisory support, which is tailored to provide investments and to support investments in energy efficiency. And one of the main instruments of our technical support is the instrument called Elena. I think it's well known and famous in the regions. It was launched already 13 years ago by us together with the European Commission. And this instrument could be used by the cities and regions to solve the so-called energy tremor, affordability, security and sustainability. Currently we are having many different projects which they include cities, regions that are really trying to invest more in their stock of electric transport, retrofitting their buildings and upgrading the public lighting portfolios and many other different projects. Because Elena I believe has an important role as a catalyst creating the enabling conditions in which more investment flows to different projects. And we will later I'm sure hear from the mayor of Louvain. We have this city of Louvain have been one of the many beneficiaries with their lower energy use via extraordinary network, which is the abbreviation of Louvain, a project in which we have provided 1.5 million euro to enable the network of building owners to retrofit and to upgrade the building stock. And as a result of this support provided through Elena's assistance, 42 million investment have been done in sustainable energy solutions in the city of Louvain as part of their vision 2030 carbon neutrality. So we have many excellent examples. I won't stop. I promise. I won't stop on each and every one of them. I just want only to conclude with one special announcement. Together with the European Commission, we have recently developed a new model, new model financial instrument, we call it. It is referenced also in repowering your communication. We had an event with Commission of Herrera in presenting the specificities of this new model financial instrument, which provides a blueprint for public authorities based on our lessons learned on our best practices in the regions. And here the idea is to provide blended packages of financial and advisory support. By saying financial, I mean loans or grants combined, loans combined with grants or guarantees combined with grants and complemented by technical assistance, by technical advisory support for energy efficiency projects around the city. So you can rely on the bank. You can rely on our availability and support through financial instruments, but as well as with technical support, which is tailor made in order to make sure that you have the right regulations in place. You have a strong pipeline of bankable projects, and we can accompany you also in building the right capacity to implement those projects. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now we go to the chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, Christian Silvio Buszoy. You have the floor for five minutes. Good evening. Thank you so much. Thank you for the invitation. And I'm also sorry that I cannot be in person today, but I would like to thank Sioret for inviting me to this debate and I want to give a strong message on behalf of Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the European Parliament, a strong message for the openness and willingness to have a strong cooperation with the Committee of Regents, but also a strong message that we are committed to find the best solutions in order to help the local authorities, the citizens and industries to face the very difficult situation that we are facing. The world has become a very different place since February 24 when Russia started a war on aggression against Ukraine. In addition to the physical battles being fought on the verge of the Union's borders, there is a less tangible but just as important battle being fought here. The energy war Russia is waging on us. This is being felt at all levels of our societies and of governance, from the Union institutions to the local authorities and each and every one of us have an important role to play in order to win this war. From the onset of the war and even before when science in the energy markets were raising suspicious of the full play by Russia, the European Parliament and in particular the Yitra Committee has been activated to work tirelessly to palliate the effects on our citizens or industry and our economy in general. Since the signing of the Versailles Declaration, we have stepped up our game in order to allow the Union to act as swiftly as possible. Concretely, we have introduced the ambition of the Repower EU plan into the ongoing fit for 55 proposals. Energy efficiency directive, renewable energy directive and EPBD. We have negotiated and adopted in record time the guest storage regulation that has proven to be an essential pillar of stability in our structurally volatile gas markets. And we are currently defining the rules for the future hydrogen internal market and updating the existing rules for the natural gas markets to make it as efficient as can be. And these are only a few to be named. Be assured that European Parliament understand fully the difficulty faced by all levels of governance in the Union when dealing with the social and economic consequences of this war. And we are fully committed in working hand in hand to allow everyone to do as much as they can to continue supporting our citizens throughout these hard times. These measures include the softening of stated rules to support vulnerable industries. Here we are totally supporting European Commission, also SMEs and sectors. The creation of the social climate fund that will allow member states to give direct financial support to vulnerable citizens. The establishment of the solidarity contribution by fossil fuel sectors of at least 33% of their profits, the care of inframarginal generation windfall profits that should give national, regional and local authorities some additional funds to redirect to those needed extra support. If anything, this war has made obvious that our initial ambition to transition towards a fully decarbonized economy was right on the point and more relevant than ever because this will not only help us to win the climate battle, but also will make us more independent, strategically independent in the field of energy when most of our energy mix will come from renewables from hydrogen and will advance a lot in our energy efficiency work. Do not mistake emergency actions during the war as a contradiction with our longer term objectives. The parliament remains forming its ambitions goals to reach a zero net carbon economy by 2050. In addition, the parliament's determination to cut energy ties with Russia in the shortest time possible remains as strong as in the early days of the war. The risk of a severe EU wide supply disruption is still real. We are being helped by having full storages and until now a good weather. But we cannot win this battle with just directives and regulations. We need everyone to do their part. We must unite to bring relief to our citizens and industries. They are determining incredible levels of solidarity with the war effort, but we have to show up for them too. Finally, I was asked to speak also about how European Parliament sees the role of regional and local authorities here and how we are supporting you in your legislative actions. Well, I think it is safe to say that parliament has traditionally been extremely supportive of regional and local authorities and of the crucial role you are playing and you will play in the carbonization transition. This is usually reflected in our mandates. Correct concretely, the ongoing files will see that local and regional planning and etiquette financing provisions are present throughout all the energy files the parliament is negotiating. The situation is very challenging. Our citizens and our industries really need our strong involvement. Already some of the borders related to our correct and ambitious climate targets, but not easy to achieve endangered the competitiveness of our industry. Now the high energy prices higher than everywhere else in the world and are even more dangerous for the industries in our Europe. There is a risk to lose some of the steel, cement, aluminum and chemical industries and also to see new investments to be scheduled outside Europe, working together and not separately, being realistic but not ideological, remaining also ambitious, but in the same time having a balanced approach to our transition we can overcome the challenges and win this difficult war. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Bushoy. Now it's my pleasure to give the floor to the mayor of Loiven, Mohamed Hidwani. You have the floor for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, colleagues. I would like to thank the committee of the regions to give a voice to the regions and local authorities that always makes me happy and I think you're doing a great job on that. If you allow me, Mr. Chairman, I would point out some three points which are relevant to us being a local authority and which could help us to reach our goals, especially being one of the 100 climate neutral and smart cities that Europe has put forward. The first thing is that we see that all dynamics that can play on a national, European or even a planetary scale, all those dynamics, we feel them locally more than elsewhere. So where we need help and where we need to speed up is in terms of the governance we have in place locally to make the change that is needed to make the investment and to have the political courage to make the change. How do we monitor what we are doing? How do we monitor the decreasing of CO2 emissions and the effects of the measures that we take? How do we find the right finance without becoming too over bureaucratic? And in general, how to make sure that we influence our community so we have the right mindset to move people to also adopt the change in terms of the sustainable mobility, in terms of cleaner energy, in terms of water and waste management. A second thing, which is of course, crucially is felt everywhere, is that of a social just transition. So if I walk outside on the streets, people will speak to me and say, we feel the climate change, we feel that something is necessary to be done, but can I afford it? Will that influence my quality of life? So if we want to have the majority of our population to be on board of the transition, then we need to make it a social just transition. This means investing, investing from the governments and extra budget to make sure that, for example, social housing is also taken in the wave of insulation and the usage of clean energy, especially we have also older homes, that are not well insulated, use a lot of energy, and especially the people that live there have lower income. So we need to help them and make sure that they as well are convinced that the change is needed. And there, one of the speakers of the European Investment Bank has pointed out that an initiative like Elena is a beautiful one because there with a small injection from the European side, you have a huge leverage with a little help from the European side, we are able to move budget, to move capital that is at the companies and our institutions to help make sure that the buildings are being retrofitted. A third thing that I would like to point out, I think that, and I believe the climate crisis is also a leadership crisis, is a crisis of responsibility. So we need to stop looking at each other, government towards the companies, entrepreneurial life towards the institutions and the grassroots organizations. If you want to move forward, we need governance models where we include and where we collaborate and put together the necessary budgets, leadership and energy that is needed to make the change. In Leuven we have the example of Leuven 2030 which is actually a kind of governance model above the city council, where all the actors being at the local authority, being at the companies, institutions, knowledge institutions and other organizations are in fact in one game and are putting their budgets and people in one place to make a lot of experiments, but especially a lot of investments that are needed to get where we need to get. Once again, thank you for the attention and I hope that in Europe we can still be hopeful that we can get it done by collaborating and by being brave and courageous and doing the change that is necessary. Thank you. Thank you so much, a mayor for your statement. Now, I would like to pass the floor to the president of the committee. Thank you very much, chair. Also, we are witnessing a social impact on an energy crisis that is having on our citizens. In Poland alone, 10% of the people are affected by energy poverty and of course this is not a new problem but it has been exacerbated by the energy crisis that we are witnessing and of course it means that simply the energy transition in our country is too slow. With less than 1% of the whole building stock being renovated each year, poor isolated buildings are currently responsible for a significant share of Europe's overall gas use, mainly of course for heating. This contributes to both higher carbon emissions and huge energy bills. And of course this situation, as I've said, is getting worse because of what we are witnessing in Europe. We, the cities, we, the regional governments are at the forefront of changes and we need to also be able to deal with the situation at hand. Unfortunately, this is not just a case of Poland and we've heard testimonies from many different countries, from Europe and from many different cities and regions who are saying basically the same. There is a huge risk that the energy crisis coupled with the increase of energy poverty situations and the risk to have lower quality public service will have a negative impact and it already has a negative impact on people's health and well-being and of course it makes our job even more difficult. As cities and regions, we welcome the efforts done in the past months for all the European institutions to mitigate the impact of the crisis on European households. However, we also stress a need to have immediate support, fast track procedures for cities and regions to access additional funds and we've been fighting for that as representatives of the Committee of the Regents. For instance, via the repower EU chapters in the Recovery and Resilence Plan. While we need to keep on working hard to our climate and energy transition with a medium and long-term view, we need an immediate response to be able to provide citizens and companies with the support that they need. I'm conveying this message not only on the basis of my experience as Mayor and as Envoy, a Commission Chair, but also more broadly on behalf of the members of the Green Deal Going Local Working Group as we had discussions on that very point. Through my experience at the Committee of the Regents but also as the Mayor of Warsaw, one of the EIB beneficiaries, I know how powerful and important the EIB measures mentioned before are. While we work on lower energy prices and securing energy supply, we cannot lose sight of the climate crisis and of course we were discussing what happens at COP 27 and how disappointed we were, especially when it comes to mitigation ambitions. It was a success for us at the core delegation because our position was strengthened and our voice was heard, but of course we need to do much more in order to fight climate change. To overcome this crisis, we also need to accelerate the climate transition and tackle the root causes of the crisis and we need a much stronger cooperation with other EU institutions. Here, I wanted to say hi to President Bozoi who's a good friend of mine and I think that we can create synergies with the European Parliament, whereby we strengthen the institutional and legislative role or our friends in the European Parliament by providing them with stronger arguments and examples from our cities and from our regions. In particular, the Committee of the Regents and the European Parliament via the core ENVIC Commission and European Parliament, each committee should and could work more closely together. And as a former member of the European Parliament, I believe that our joint work will make sure Europe provides the right and timely support to the citizens on the ground, which obviously is the most important thing that is on our minds. So here, let me use this platform to call for a structural cooperation between our two institutions. As I've said, it so happens that it is the cities and regions which are at the forefront fighting all of those crises that we need to confront, starting from the pandemic, then with the refugee crisis, fighting climate change and of course the energy crisis. Even though sometimes it is not in our competence, but the responsibilities shifted our way by our governments, sometimes even by European institutions. And we are happy to carry that burden, provided that our voice is heard, provided that there is assistance, provided there is financing. Many of us here are taking more ambitious measures than those of our national governments. Many of us, all of us, I would submit to you. And we of course believe that national global climate goals should be supported by all of us and without the involvement of cities and regions. There will be no progress. And finally, cities and regions need more direct support and clear recognition of their effort in national policies as we have often seen national governments taking different directions and not being able to develop ambitious energy in climate policy. We are more ambitious sometimes than the governments. And that's why cities and regions stand ready to work with the EU institutions to achieve a structural transformation of our energy system and to tackle the root causes of the crisis. We are the ones close to the citizens. We know how important it is. Thank you very much. Muito obrigado, presidente. Thank you, Rafal. Now we go to political groups. Olga Geblevich, I don't think he's... Yes, but is anyone intervening on behalf of Geblevich? Yes. So you have four minutes. No, I will have two minutes and Hanat Stanowska will do another two. That was what I was asking. That's fine. Yes. Thank you. I have the floor for two minutes. Two and two is four. Let me start by congratulating the speeches that we just heard. So that's the big political guidelines. And as the price of electricity rises and the threat of electricity shortages grows, cities need to introduce effective measures to reduce the consumption of electricity. Short-term as well, long-term of course. And in the year we need to share our good practices, so let me just describe in brief some of our Espositi experiences. What we do and how we encourage our residents to do. First, energy savings are being achieved by actually starting already years ago, the modernizing measures of all infrastructure, buildings, and so on. And that happens together with industry, with owners of buildings, et cetera. Second point is that investments on all energy-related construction is based on renewables. No fossil fuel anymore and we go deep and fruitful public-private collaboration on that. My city will be carbon neutral by 2030. We are one of the 100 climate neutral foreigners cities. Third point is how we are then reacting on the situation this winter. We established a special energy preparedness team to tackle the threats of electricity shortages and city board approved an action plan what to do for this winter. Some examples on that. So on the premises used by the city, the indoor temperatures will be reduced to approximately 20.5 degrees centigrade. However, the indoor temperatures will not be reduced as, for example, children's daycare centers and round-the-clock housing units for elderly people or disabilities. Ventilation will be regulated according to the operating times and so on. So there's very many concrete activities. That's we are proud that we can move so fast. Thank you. Now we go to our colleague Anna Zdanałska. You have the floor for two minutes. Thank you very much, Mr Chair, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank you all for this discussion because it is necessary. We regret very much. I don't know how about other countries, but unfortunately in Poland there's no discussion about this topic. And there's no discussion about all the interested parties that is tenants, sort of governments, SMEs, and the politicians, politicians of different levels. So the basis for go through this crisis that we are stuck in is a cooperation, cooperation on all levels and discussion, convincing one another, which is not easy. On the other hand, energy crisis is about people, people who suffer from that crisis. So this is also companies, companies who are trying to remain competitive. Then there are the self-governments who are struggling with this problem on every level, not just from the points of our budgets, of our finances, but also we are trying to support those who, just like Mr Traskowski said, are excluded energetically. And energy poverty is coming. This is only starting, the tip of the iceberg. So cooperation on all levels and delegating funds to the lowest available level, this is the solution. So that in our small towns and villages where this energy poverty really happens so that we can fight it right at the correct level. Then we all have to teach one another, we have to learn what is saving energy about. That is both energy, that means isolating our buildings, our houses, but also the ability to save, to save all the time in everyday use, in everyday life. So yeah, thank you very much. Now the floor goes to Yosko Klyzovich for four minutes. Thank you, Mr President. We are currently facing multiple crises at once. All of them are outshadowed by the bigger task, the normalization of emergency. But our responses run the risk of damaging long-term strategies and investments. Since Putin's illegal war in Ukraine started, European cities and regions have been facing huge new challenges, often with unsustainable costs. It seems that the EU is rather reacting to the events, be it with the energy bills, diversification of energy supply, full shortage of refugees, sometimes putting even at risk the way we re-channel and spend the structural funds. Rules should allow for strategic investments while safeguarding sustainability. Several requests put forward through our resolution on repower EU and fit for 55 opinions have been taken on board just unthinkable a few months ago. Among others, taxation of windfall profit and the coupling gas and electricity, a green hydrogen bank using 3 billion euros from the Innovation Fund, the massive deployment of renewable energy. A crisis situation we are facing prompt us to think more strategically. We all agree that we must safeguard vulnerable households and companies. S&D groups, winter solidarity plan to bring bills down, addresses these challenge with 15 concrete measures. Across the Europe, solidarity must be clearly felt in this time of crisis. And therefore, the solidarity contribution, which is now required only from energy sector, should be extend to all sectors benefiting from windfall profits. No need to remind you that the other name of crisis is an opportunity. Now is the time to turn this crisis into the opportunity. In other words, it is time to reduce dependence on Russian and others fossil fuels and fast forward our green transition. Thus, we should strategically diverse Europe's sources of energy with a full emphasis on renewable sources. This implies strategically and massively investing and building in clean infrastructure across Europe. As a part of this endeavor and assistance to vulnerable households and businesses, it would be more strategic and less expensive to provide them with solar panels or whatever it allows them to become a prosumer of a local renewable community than to implement some quick fix not strategic measures. We will continue to insist on energy performance in this context. During the underlying state of the union speech, we did not hear a single word about the role of cities and regions in facing these multiple crisis. But it will be difficult to follow words with deeds without us, because when it comes to implementation of measures or provisions of a first aid, we are always on the front front. It is clear that cities are heavily affected by higher energy prices, which jeopardize our capacity to provide adequate services to our citizens and fulfill Green Deal's goals. On the other hand, in the cities, we are generating a huge amount of fuel which can be turned into energy in clean and sustainable manner. I'm talking of ways to energy concept in circular economy. Unfortunately, 24% of municipal waste across EU 27 and in Croatia, 60% is still land-filled. Although land-filled gases, such as methane, contribute significantly to global warming. We should do more in acquiring public support for this concept and allocate more financial resources to investments in this type of infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our member Vincent Chouvet for one and a half minute. Merci, Monsieur... Thank you very much, Chair. As you would like figures and graphs, here you go. This was prepared by Mérifre Nikola for a tent and it shows the costs of electricity for 2022 and 2023. This was 75% in 2022, in 2022 compared to 2021 and even more in 2023. Two million additional euros for a town of 13,000 inhabitants just for electricity alone. Now it's interesting to note that we've created shock absorbers for companies, ways of doing that for households as well, but for a town we have a kind of security net, which of course prevents you from smashing against the ground, as it were. But the risk is that we won't be able to heat schools and gyms and eventually have a balanced budget without putting all those costs on individual households. Now we're just at the beginning of this whole energy crisis for households. We see what the impact could be for towns and households, I mean, closures of schools, things like that. And again, as I say, we're just at the beginning of the crisis. At the floor for one and a half minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, dear colleagues, dear friends. I know it is difficult to be a mayor in these times. We have and bear a big burden. The energy prices are high. The crisis are multiple. But we have to take care of the budget and provide basic services such as heating two kindergartens light on the street. That is why our role is not easy. We have, however, some examples of good practice. When we had JCC in Skopje, North Macedonia, we heard an example of a city, how waste was turned into electricity. And now public buildings can be heated in this way. And with the money saved, the teachers can be paid. And so there are examples of good practices. A Chinese proverb says, may your enemy live in times of change. And these are our times. And that is why I would say today the following. Local authorities have a very big role to play. Don't tie our hands. Help us give us the financial resources so that we can fully play our role and contribute to positive change and positive stories. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Witold Koslowski. You have the floor for two and a half minutes. Mr. Chair, thank you very much for giving me the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, Russian aggression against Ukraine, against independent Ukraine led to a hike of energy prices in all of Europe. And in case of hull holes, on average by 50% compared to January 2021. We must be aware that ending dependency on Russian hydrocarbons is a necessity. But at the same time, it requires higher cost of energy of alternative fuel and may even mean energy shortages. However, it is impossible to avoid the crisis. We simply have to face it. Replacing Russian gas will take time, but it is feasible. It was mentioned by Mr. Christian Busoy. The key purpose of our energy policy should be energy stability for all regions of the European Union. I am a local self-government politician from our Polska and like to emphasize that ensuring safety of each member of our local communities is simply our moral obligation. At the same time, the role of territorial self-government is to promote saving energy, modernizing ineffective heating system, isolating buildings and investing into renewable energy sources that was mentioned by Mayor of Łódź, Madame Stanowska. A couple of years ago, people in our regions didn't pay too much attention about how much energy they are using because energy was relatively cheap. However, the energy crisis, in a natural way, started a discussion about saving energy on everyday basis. And certainly, we all have to learn how to save energy. And we have to save energy on everyday basis. We have to learn and make it a habit. Investments into renewables may provide for the missing energy production capacity and limit CO2 emission. Renewables should be treated as a priority. And we have to, at the same time, overcome barriers related to distribution networks and any other market challenges related to energy transformation. One last sentence. Our party believes that investment into renewables must be accompanied by construction of new nuclear plants. This is what Poland is planning, and we hope that these intentions will be supported by European institutions. Thank you. Thank you. Our colleague Andrzej Grifra has the floor for two minutes. Thank you. Isn't it that so? Thank you. It is true that energy prices started going up even before the war. And the war has compounded matters further. And if we now look at what Europe has done, it's done a good job when it comes to replenishing gas reserves. It's done well on repower EU. But when we look at keeping prices under control, they still seem to be discussing matters. And the discussion has a geopolitical dimension, which means that citizens are really not very much aware of it. And this is why the Committee of the Regions, which has a bottom-up approach, should insist on people consuming less, on having local energy production. We should be insisting on diversifying our sources for the production of electricity. Each kilowatt hour that we don't consume will be the cheapest and cleanest kilowatt hour, and will be the kilowatt hour that we don't depend on. And that is something that we've learned too recently. We are so dependent on less stable regions outside the EU that it's like a noose around our necks. We're shooting ourselves in the foot. But of course, Europe shouldn't think that they can go for a one-size-fits-all system either. No, cities, regions, they each have their own concerns, their own DNA, their own approach. And the sum of all of these approaches and concerns should be the solution. And the solution is consume less, diversify more, and invest in local production. Now, it's my pleasure to give the floor to our colleague, Nina Ratilainen. You have the floor for two minutes. Thank you very much. And this is a topical and important discussion. It's cold in Finland, but it's even colder in Ukraine. And it's very important to say out loud that this isn't just an energy crisis, but rather it's a fossil fuels crisis. The reason behind it, of course, is Russia and our dependence on a fossil fuel is from Russia. In Europe, there are obviously movements to resolve this. And those who would want to impede that as well. But in the Committee of the Regions, we are strong, and we can try to implement the objective set by the UN. Cities and regions can solve this crisis. I have confidence in us. European households need our support. Needs to be socially fair and environmentally sustainable. So I could give you some examples from my city. Our energy company already before the war had implemented a renewable energy strategy. And I'm really proud of us for having foreseen that need. And in my city, we have a lot of households made up of only one person, and we can't divide energy costs across everyone to the same amount. So we have to really look at who's suffering the most and then help them as a priority. We depend on energy, obviously. In October in Finland, we've consumed 11% less energy than we did last year. And that's thanks to actions taken by households. And I think that households really have an essential role to play in order to come to a solution. Thank you. A minute. In this energy crisis, the most vulnerable and are paying the highest price. And we can only get out of this and protect households from soaring energy bills if we invest in more sustainability now. And this means massively ramping up renewable electricity, investing in grids, and harnessing the potential of green hydrogen, and supporting local and regional permitting authorities to act in this. To lift the pain of households, we should act smart, and therefore we need a European energy efficiency investment program for households with strong incentives and financial support to insulate houses and investments in smart energy solutions. My home province of Drenthe has just received funding from the Indian program to support households with energy efficiency measures to act fires on possible measures, financing, subsidies, and so on. This is great, but no funds are available for the works themselves, and that's needs to change. My province just launched an insulation program support port with 2 million euro for households below the social minimum income in Drenthe. This means that we not only give advice, but also finance the innovation measures, and something similar should be possible on a bigger scale at the European level. Thank you. Now, Markus Leichmann, you have the floor for one minute. The energy crisis is a major challenge for all European regions, but most of all for our people. The recent situation creates more and more social conflicts triggered by higher prices. Gas and energy price limits, as well as national and regional emergency funds, help people and businesses. But they increases the disparity in the European Union. We are only just realizing the short-term impacts of the different crisis. Energy price, distribution problems, and the bottleneck in raw materials become more and more severe. It seems that globalization has reached its extreme limits. In each crisis, however, there is an opportunity, because the energy transition is now becoming more attractive even to the skeptical. Regional decentralized and regenerative energy supply is increasingly becoming a business location factor for good, independent, economic future opportunities and respective employment. But also there is a growth disparity between the European regions. Thank you. Now, our colleague, Esold Ries, you have the floor for one minute. Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Chair. The Russian War of Aggression on Ukraine has showed us that energy policy and security policy are closely interlinked. And at the moment, the energy issue is the main issue for people. They're asking themselves the questions, will they be able to keep the heating on this winter? I think one thing is missing from our discussion today. That is the decoupling of the gas prices from the overall energy prices, because that would allow us to pass on the low prices for renewables to the consumers. So this is something that needs to remain on the EU agenda and it actually needs to be translated into action. We also need lower VAT on energy. And we need the equipment which will allow us to make energy saving a reality at home. We have programs in the EU, repower, et cetera. And that's all well and good. But they need to be simplified. They need to be more quick as well. And the problem is that they always fall back on cohesion policy as well. And that can't go on to the future. Thank you. Gidmar Brox, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much, President. Colleagues, the energy crisis has hit all citizens, all companies in Europe by now. That's something that's quite clear from the discussion we're having today. I'm from North Rhine, Westphalia, one of the most energy intensive locations, lots of industry located there as well. And the region has been quite hard hit by this crisis. Colleagues, Europe is strongest when it uses the opportunities that present themselves for our citizens to work at a cross-border level. So in our region before the crisis, we had a close exchange with our Belgian neighbors, with our Dutch neighbors as well. And particularly now in these times of crisis, it's very important that we use this cooperation and that we can ramp up our actions so that we can find common solutions for our citizens. We need to make sure that major projects like pipeline building, electricity grids, et cetera, are all accelerated so that we can actually provide gas, hydrogen, et cetera, throughout the EU. That is our responsibility, and that's what we need to do now. Thank you. Colleague Turk, you have the floor for one minute. It's beautiful. It's clear. Thank you very much. Russia's aggression on Ukraine, it is clear, has led to an enormous energy crisis, which is more than just an energy crisis, as well as inflation, which means that we are now facing challenges that are unprecedented and have not been seen for decades. Our common policies provide a framework for our member states to work together. I'm also myself, a member of 18, that's implemented certain measures in my home country of Croatia to aid our local communities and our citizens. One thing that I wish to add, we have all the incentives here that have to do with alternative energy sources. And this tells us about the times we live in. Let me go back to what I said at the outset. It is implementing all these measures that might play a particularly important role at regional and local level. But we need to be supported by the European Union. Mr. Maruzic, you have the floor for one minute. Dame Gospodo, Solidarno Stiedens, ladies and gentlemen, Solidarity is the very basis, the very foundations of the European Union. Russia's aggression on Ukraine is one thing, but Europe is trying to find alternative sources of energy. My own country has been drawing on European funds to help rebuild 20 schools and other public institutions in our region. And we've saved up more than 70% of our energy in the process. We are receiving support from both the European Union and from our own government, and are enjoying a great deal of support from our Prime Minister, Mr. Plenkovich, thanks to which. We have no reason to fear this winter. As you see, I'm wearing our Croatian national team jersey because the Croatia-Belgian game is about to start. I believe that we shall prevail, but there will be no winners and no banquish today. This is a great day to celebrate the love of our own countries, and we must stay united at every point in time. Belgium, Croatia, Europe, and everyone else, thank you. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's go to your score, Klizovic. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. As I said, cities are a big consumer of energy and they are badly hit by high prices. Cities are at the same time big generators of waste and common sense dictates. Get rid of waste in harmless way. Get the energy from priceless fuel. I'm speaking of waste to energy concept. 18 million Europeans get electricity from waste. 15 million get heat. So boost the concept, allocate more financial resources to this concept, to this infrastructure, make access to France easier, and help us inform public raise awareness that this is a clean way to get energy. We will easily then attain Green Deal's goal. Thank you. Goals. Thank you. Now, the floor goes to our colleague Schausberger. One minute. Yeah, President, you're in a big crisis. Thank you, President. The energy crisis and the massive energy price hikes have numerous consequences for our communities and for our citizens and for the infrastructure in our communities, houses, hospitals, schools, et cetera. And of course, the citizens are the hardest hit at the end of the day. I think it's a good thing that the EU has provisions now for unused funds, so that these have been adapted in a way that they can be used to address the problems we're facing. The Member States should also make sure that these funds are spent in a way that's done with the involvement of the regions and communities. We have reduced our dependence on Russian gas from 80% to 20%. Of course, the ideal will be to reduce that to 0%. Our stores are 90% full, and we've reduced consumption by 20%. So I think we need to stay the course together. Thank you. The V.S. Gotthard, one minute. The President. President, the war we've seen is leading to ever-increasing price hikes, and this is incredibly painful for many households. The EU needs to stabilise the market, so we need to strengthen resilience. We need to invest in energies which will make us independent. We need to support local energy production. We need to make sure that we can keep the jobs that we need. We need to invest in innovative energy sources, decouple the gas price from the energy price, and promote the energy sector overall. And then finally, let's take action against the damage that has been done. Thank you. Thank you. Patrick Schwarzkiefer, one minute, not with us. Josef Kobor, one minute. The microphone is not working. Do you have one microphone? Do you have a microphone next to you that you can use? Dear colleagues, the energy policy of the European Union and the green transition policy of the Green Deal are closely related. If we spoil one, the other become, became impossible. And that is exactly what's happened now. Let's speak about taxonomy. Compiled by the European Commission, the highly anticipated classification system is a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. What does it mean? Brussels classifies nuclear power, unspoken French nuclear power, and fossil gas. Unspoken Russian gas are sustainable in the legal text. It will count as direct recommendation to financial markets to investing gas and nuclear plants. One years ago, just I personally generated a debate about taxonomy. Unfortunately, we did not pay attention to it. It was a trap. And the trap closed in this year. Cheap Russian gas is over because of the war and sanctions. French nuclear power collapsed. We have to do the hot summer. So to save the Green Deal, the EU must fundamentally change the legal foundations of energy policy. Thank you. Thank you. Apologize to Gary Wupp for skipping it. Now you have the floor for one minute. No problem, Mr. President. We have... No problem. Thank you. I think it's incumbent upon us all, but particularly here at the political level, to respond to this energy crisis. We have done our bit in Berlin, particularly when it comes to the social consequences. We have a three billion budget set aside to provide support measures and transition measures and implement them. It comes down to supporting local and public entities here. We need to help households as well when it comes to the rising living costs. And we need to support the infrastructure for our households as well. We have a ticket, a specific ticket that's available now at a low cost to help people avail of public transport. So overall, we need to make these transitions in order to accelerate the energy transition. I think it's very important now, but we do need as well to be able to tax the excess profits of these companies. And we need feedback as well overall with the growth and stability package that will affect us. Thank you. You have the floor. Thank you, chair. I just wanted to say that this energy crisis is already having a huge impact on families. And it's coinciding with the food crisis. The price of foods are increasing at a frightening rate. And other consumer goods that are priority, like bread, are as well. And we heard a bit about this yesterday, the problem that's occurring on that front. Families are facing challenges. And those who have mainly been responding are the local and regional authorities. But as I said yesterday when I took the floor, I think that the EU needs to try to help families overcome this problem as well. Thank you very much, chair. Thank you. Now I don't have any other requests for the floor. We're going to move forward for the closing remarks. I will now give the floor to our colleague, Rafal Traskowski, for two minutes. Yes, first of all, colleagues, I wanted to thank you very much for all your contribution. And it proves that we know what we are talking about because we are very much on the ground, close to citizens and the practical voices that you've provided show a lot of responsibility, but also that we are all on the same page. And I think that that's why we should be fighting for more influence in the decision-making process, not to only fight for our institutional position, but to create synergies with European institutions because we really have quite a lot to contribute. And we can strengthen the position of the European Union when our voice and our experience is being heard. But of course, by creating those synergies, we also need to fight for more assistance from the European Union, for more financing, some of which could be in the form of direct financing because that's exactly what we need. I wanted particularly to thank our creation friends. Fingers crossed, 15 minutes from now. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our guest, Liliana Pavlova. You have the floor for closing remarks. Thank you very much. I promise to be as short as possible. Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate, to listen to the important and very interesting interactions and messages and statements. I can summarize the acknowledgement of those messages maybe in three main elements. First, the role of the cities and regions is crucial, is critical, and without the cities and regions who are at the front line, we are, and it won't be possible to overcome the crisis, to overcome the challenges and still to keep up and to keep on our goals and ambitions along the green deal if we are to be successful in both. And if we are indeed really able to keep the prices, to keep the energy prices, and to maintain the situation. Special focus and support on vulnerable and the energy poverty is the key element, which needs to be addressed. Third element, energy savings. As I said also in my intervention, the energy savings are the best way to move forward. And I heard today here the need of establishing special funds or facilities for in support of households, especially to introduce energy efficiency measures isolation. Here I can say we do have the funds, the instruments. For example, we do have kind of mortgage-based lending facilities. We do have special fund structure, financial instruments where we can combine resources, grounds, loans, and guarantees in order to make sure that through grants we provide technical support for projects. We provide capital grants for those who are low-income individuals, families, to cover their investment costs, as well as to have capital rebates and to have interest rates subsidies, everything which is needed. We have the right instruments in place, so we can really deliver there and you can rely on our support. And last but not least, it is critically important not only to create synergies between the different instruments, the different institutions, but to stay united whatever happens. And also, let me join in concluding, stay united, even whatever is the result of the football match in 15 minutes. Good luck to all. Well, thank you so much. This concludes our debate. And I would like to thank all speakers and all participants in this debate and wish you the best. Now, dear colleagues, we are going to move to