 Member of the European Parliament and member of its ITRE committee. I would also like to thank the chair of ECON Commission, our colleague Jaroslava Pokorna Yermanova, for being with us. The EER awards honors regions and cities with the most convincing, forward-looking entrepreneurial visions and strategies. So Ms. Kutajar, you have the floor for three minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, members of the Committee of the Regions, award winners and distinguished guests, it's an honor to be with you here today and it's an honor to be addressing the 156th plenary of the Committee of the Regions, remembering also what the first president of this institution, Jacques Blanc, said in 1994, that a new Europe of the Regions can arise to complement your well-established Europe of States. Having been elected myself at a very young age of 22 in my village's local council of Nadur and Gozo, I realize and appreciate firsthand the importance of not only keeping regions and local communities afloat, but fostering the entrepreneurship necessary to keep them alive and well on the economic but also the social scale. This could not be more relevant than for my own island that I come from, Gozo, which itself is an island of the EU's smallest member state, Malta, and is an island facing double insularity. It draws its economic fabric from the entrepreneurship of SMEs, which face in here and challenges, but also opportunities if properly assisted. This is a reality shared with other disadvantaged regions. A point highlighted in the European Parliament's report on islands and cohesion policy, which I had the pleasure to work upon in the Committee on Regional Development, and if properly assisted, along with our entrepreneurs, we could do and go miles, and therefore that's why these awards are of much importance. Economic dynamism, especially in regions further away from the traditional economic hubs, rely not only on the resilience of firms of all sizes to run their business successfully, but also the drive of regional and local governments to attract, incubate, and retain these firms within the regions. Entrepreneurial regions, like those who have won today's award, work with a positive mindset, not just for survival, but with one that actively seeks to have the region thrive, making the best use of any funds allocated to them. Entrepreneurial regions are indeed creativity regions, which see the knowledge, green and digital economy not as a mere challenge, but also as an opportunity to double down on commitments and make hay while the sun shines. What should set apart any entrepreneurial region, however, should be the creative and effective management of the fruits of their success? It is essential to remember that no race is won until you cross the finish line. And in this case, the finish line must not only be about economic sustainability, but also about the positive spillover or effects on the communities, but also the environmental and social sustainability. These are key principles which I emphasize as negotiator of European Parliament's SME strategy report. After all, Europe's entrepreneurial regions must recognize how supporting municipal services, especially when it comes in fields like education and upskilling, remains the surest long-term investment for any of our unions' regions to prosper. And definitely for our companies and self-entrepreneurs also. My warmest congratulations to the winning regions. And I look forward for further collaboration with all of you. And may I close my remarks in Maltese? My mother tongue. And I am looking forward to collaborate together in our regions and to ensure that we can assist them in the necessary way to reach their fullest potential hand in hand with our entrepreneurs as well. Thank you. Member Jermanova, the floor is yours for two minutes. Thank you very much for giving me the floor, Chair. I don't think I am going to need these two minutes. I will try to be brief. Dear colleagues, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor for me on behalf of the commission icon to attend this award-giving ceremony. And I'm really happy that one of the awarded regions is a region of my own country, the Czech Republic, namely the South Moravian region. Now, the presence of people who have received awards for these regions shows that this is a great success and it's a great tribute to national and over-national cooperation. And now I would like to send a short message to these regions. This award is going to be a key tool for you at the European level to promote your implementation of your entrepreneurial strategies. I, thereby, congratulate all the regions who have received awards and you can count on us, you can count on support of ECON. Thank you so much. I would now like to invite the four award winners to join us on the podium. Masimiliano Fedriga, Jan Grolisz, Mario Tsozapas, Witold Kozlowski. While they're taking their seats, let me invite you to watch a video. It's my pleasure to introduce the first winner of this year's EER Award, Friuli, Vanessa Giulia region, represented by Mr. Masimiliano Fedriga. The EER Award for its commitment to transform its industrial and productive system centered on human progress and well-being. Congratulations. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you very much indeed, President. And I'd like to thank the Committee of the Region for, really, have been part of my candidacy and alongside the Italian colleagues. So for a number of years, this is the assembly in which it's not just the state being represented, but the interests of Europe itself. So I'd like to begin with this round of thanks. Underlining the fact that the Friuli, Vanessa Giulia region has invested a great deal in the entrepreneurial infrastructure of our region, but also the European context in which region rests. We are in an area with the port of Trieste, which is very, very important in terms of trade. We are very sustainable. And of course, we look to the south of Europe to us as we look north. Now, we have an agreement with Slovenia and Croatia for the first to Transnational Hydrogen Valley in Europe to foster the transition, the energy transition in a sustainable way. But really, this is a sustainability which must be environmental, social, economic and also technological. We as territories have a great responsibility to work together between European regions and municipalities so that the productive sectors and technological know-how can be shared and guided by Western democracies can indeed be protected from third countries that are not democratic. As we look at the Russian aggression in Ukraine, we see that we need to be able to choose our industrial developments, and that is a responsibility to our citizens in terms of well-being. So today, development of companies and the economy across the territory as part of this unfortunate international situation is not just economic and job opportunities, but also represents a guarantee of freedom which the European institutions and we as representatives of our regions must guarantee to our citizens. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Now I give the floor to Jan Groles, Governor of South Moravia region. It's awarded for their efforts to develop tailored activities supporting entrepreneurs. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Chairman, dear guests, dear colleagues. It is a great honor for us, and I think I can say it is no coincidence that we received this award because this is a long journey which started 20 years ago. It was at the time when the Czech Republic was about to join the European Union and we were supported also financially to implement all kinds of projects. And our South Moravian region together with the city of Brno decided to support innovative companies and innovative projects because we had really very good conditions for that. After all, in Brno we have three universities and we also established the Brno Innovation Center, which was also important, which was not only important for our region and for our city, but for all the companies working in this region. The Brno Innovation Center gained a great respect and all big players, all big businesses see this as a very important entity in the region and they enjoy cooperating with it. So it is thanks to this that we also develop all kind of strategies for the future and we try to do as much as possible to ensure people living in our region have good jobs, they can have good living conditions and we can improve not only the business environment in the region, in South Moravia, but also the living conditions in general and I believe we've been quite successful in that and I hope we will continue to do so in the future. So now we can be proud to say we are the only region from the Czech Republic to have been awarded to that, but I hope we are not the last region because I know there are other regions in our country doing a really good job as well. So I hope they can go in our footsteps, they can follow us and I will be very happy to see their success in the future. So once again, thank you all for your support. It is a great honor, it is a great motivation for other activities in the future and I hope that other regions in the Czech Republic and elsewhere who really need this support, both financially and in other ways, will receive it from the European Union and we will try to do our best to inspire them. So thank you very much for your support. It's a great source of positive energy for our future work. And now it's a great pleasure for me to give the floor to my fellow Portuguese-Mario Souza Passage from Villenau de Femalicão, a Minasutra de Inspirality of Femalicão won the award because of its new strategy for promoting entrepreneurship called Femalicão Made In. So dear President, you have the floor for three minutes. Thank you very much. Allow me to thank you very especially Mr. Cordero. I know him well and also compliment the other members of the committee and the representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, my fellow mares and representatives of European Entrepreneurial Regions 2024. Congratulations to you all for also achieving this award. I'd also of course like to greet all the rest of you, ladies and gentlemen, Villa Nova de Femalicão, receiving the Institution of Entrepreneurial European Region 2024 is the best testament to the economic vitality of our territory and recognition of the merit of our public policies, essentially fostering entrepreneurship. This award honors everybody and the municipality feels bound to praise with the first territory in the northern region of Portugal to be part of the group of European citizens and regions receiving this award. But this prize now awarded is the corollary of decades of work, dedication and perseverance and which has involved several key players, entrepreneurs, workers, local authorities, schools, technology and research centres. This is a great opportunity for us to thank on behalf of our municipality all of the economic agents of our council for helping push forward. It's not a coincidence that we are one of the most exporting regions with third largest exporter region and we also contribute a great deal. In fact, we are the second largest, most of the national trade balance, the second place national level with a surplus of almost one billion euros. We've always been under the national unemployment averages and we really are helping to create jobs, but no programme, however good it may be, can resist stagnation. The world is evolving and territorial dynamics have to keep up with that reality. However, a territory must be ambitious and constantly evolved to help to meet the needs of our entrepreneurs and the territory. The municipal strategy of created in the transition from value production to value creation, which we have been developing, is driving the reconfiguration of familiquant's economic profile and recognises companies that stand out in the areas of sustainability, innovation, social responsibility and by so doing they contribute to competitiveness, wealth generation and the creation of qualified jobs. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed to you. It gives me great pleasure to give a special mention to a region for their specific commitment towards Ukraine. The special mention of the EER award goes to Malopolosky region represented by Marshall Witold Koslowski and the reason for the award is its commitment to become a regional hub and centre for fax expertise for Ukrainian businesses and citizens. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you, President, ladies and gentlemen. It's a huge honour to receive special award for the Malopolosky region. I'd like to thank you on behalf of the authorities of the region and all of its residents. Since 2016, the Malopolosky avoidorship has been included in the elite group of European entrepreneurial regions and in recent years Malopolosky has been developing very quickly. Today it's a strong and modern region. The third Krakow-Malopolosky European Games ended a few days ago and this brought together around 7,000 athletes from all over Europe and they were competing with one another and they will, I'm sure, lead to future developments. These games involved in four Polish regions in the total of 15 cities in 29 disciplines there were no Russian or Belarusian athletes in protest against the war in Ukraine where innocent people are dying. Thanks to the huge help of many countries, many sports federations and associations, athletes from Ukraine who were present and achieved great results were able to prepare for these games. Seventh place in the medals, with a total of 41 medals, they deserve a round of applause. Thank you so much. I'm back to the definition of our strategy and our strategy is guided by this slogan, Responsible Future, which is why we invest in activities to help sustainable development thanks to the strong position of our region that's been built up over the years. We have coped very well with the challenges that Europe has had to face. We have reacted to threats straight after the outbreak of the pandemic. In March 2019, we launched an anti-crisis shield and allocated huge amounts of money to fight COVID-19, mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the regional economy. Since February 2022, we have been in solidarity with the Ukrainian citizens who have come to our region in huge numbers. We have allocated more than 22 million euros to support Ukrainian citizens in various areas, including education and the labour market. The title of the European Entrepreneurial Region, which was obtained by the Moposka Region seven years ago, motivated us a great deal. It's also inspired us and facilitated the exchange of practice and experience. We have a lot of knowledge and experience in implementing EU funds and finding partners for cooperation. We want to share this knowledge and experience with Ukraine and we are ready to be a centre of entrepreneurship for Ukrainian business. There aren't many companies with Ukrainian capital operating in Moposka today. After the outbreak of the war, the number of companies established by Ukrainian citizens since then has increased significantly. This is why we want to create the best conditions for these companies. I'd like to thank all the regions. Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, to conclude our session, we'll have the delivery of the awards right in front of the... Here. And after that, we may consider that the session of this meeting is closed. Let me take this opportunity before the... Go and deliver the awards to thank everybody, the General Secretary at our services staff, your presence here. The special thank to the interpreters for their generosity with the time. And to all of you, and congratulations once more to the winners of EEAWAR. We all proceed now to deliver of the awards and after that the session is closed. Thank you.