Annual Impact Report

The CoR roadmap on EU elections largely mobilised local and regional authorities and managed to influence the political debate, notably via the Mons Summit, relevant debates in Plenary and commissions as well as other means of engagement. The CoR was also active in shaping the Defence of Democracy package.

The fourth edition of the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award promoted the contribution of stakeholders at local and regional level in the fight against intolerance, radicalisation, hate speech, oppression and xenophobia. For the first time the chair of the European Parliament’s LIBE committee, Mr. Zarzalejos, was part of the jury.

Following CoR and Joint Research Centre (JRC) activism, Eurostat announced that the 2025 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring report for the European Semester should incorporate a chapter on regional data, providing a more granular evidence base for EU recommendations for Member States reform and integrating regions within the EU’s efforts on the SDGs.

The revised cooperation agreements signed by the CoR with the European Commission and the European Parliament strengthen its inter-institutional relations and include stronger references to the cooperation on better regulation and active subsidiarity.

Debates during the 11th Subsidiarity Conference held in Warsaw in October 2024 went beyond the legal dimension of the principle of subsidiarity.

They addressed the possible future simplification and centralisation of the MFF, raising concerns about the consistency of such an approach with active subsidiarity.

CoR’s significant work on skills, via its opinions and resolutions on skills policies, was acknowledged by the European Commission’s DG EMPL report on the European Year of Skills. It also highlighted the CoR’s work on skills and the vital role of LRAs in driving the success of the European Skills Agenda.

The CoR Network of European Regional and Local Councillors merged with the European Commission’s ‘Building Europe with Local Councillors’ project, marking an unprecedented step forward for the Committee and the first time the CoR has been directly mentioned as an European Commission partner in the Commission’s five-year political programme.

The 2024 Young Elected Politicians Call welcomed 150 participants representing all EU Member States and five EU candidate countries. Since the programme expanded to EU candidate countries in 2023, a total of 40 YEPs from all eight candidate countries have joined, bringing the total number of YEPs to nearly 1 000 since the programme’s inception, and its Facebook group has grown to 565 members.

The Green Deal 2.0 report influenced the European Council conclusions, aligning with the CoR’s call for policy synergies, just transition, regional perspectives, and increased investment for local authorities. The report is a key milestone in the CoR term of office and in its work on the European Green Deal, especially the Green Deal Going Local Working Group.

The CoR opinion Towards a Global Green Deal shaped the European Council’s conclusions. Thanks to its engagement, the CoR is now part of the coordinating committee of the Global Partnership on Subnational and Local Governments for Biodiversity and a recognised partner leading the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) constituency joint position for climate.

In the context of the important upcoming review of the Regulation on CO2 standards for passenger cars, the CoR’s ARA has been recognised in the legislation as a key partner on which this review should build on.

Thanks to the CoR’s excellent cooperation with the services of European Commissioners the pilot calls for the Regional Innovation Valleys (RIV) were launched. This project will bring together like-minded regions to work together on specific policy topics, while strengthening their research and innovation capacity at the same time.

The CoR opinion Towards a resilient water management to fight climate crisis within an EU Blue Deal advocated for the appointment of a dedicated Commissioner for Water.
In response to calls from the CoR, President von der Leyen appointed a Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience, and a Competitive Circular Economy.

The EU Nature Restoration Law incorporated key points from the CoR opinion: the importance of considering regional and local characteristics in National Restoration Plans, paying particular attention to the Union’s outermost regions, and the need to involve local, regional and managing authorities in the preparation of the plans.

Following the CoR’s long-standing call, the new fiscal rules exclude co-financing of EU programmes, such as structural funds, from the calculations of public expenditure.
This will incentivise quality public investment supported by the EU in a context of constrained budgets at all levels of government.

The CoR opinion on a European Health Data Space influenced the final version of the regulation. Capitalising on existing regional frameworks and health data ecosystems, the opinion convinced the members of the European Parliament that a greater focus on the involvement and responsibilities of the local and regional level is key to the overall success of the new law.

Through a series of opinions adopted since early 2023, the CoR has put forward its recommendations on cohesion policy post-2027, calling for a reinforced and improved cohesion policy that is firmly based on the principles of shared management, multi-level governance, partnership, and a place-based approach.

It has also underlined the importance of European Territorial Cooperation and of Just Transition. All these messages have been echoed in several key documents from the European Commission and the European Council.

Following up on the CoR’s proposal contained in its opinion on Zero long-term unemployment: the local and regional perspective, the European Commission decided to launch a pilot project committing EUR 23 million from European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to cofinance regions’ and/or cities’ projects to reintegrate long term unemployed people into the labour market.

The European Commission 2024-2029 appointed a Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, following calls from the European Parliament in its resolution on the Implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy, and from the CoR in its opinion on The Common Fisheries Policy on the ground, both of which called for local and regional authorities to have a greater role.

The CoR opinion European Cross-Border Mechanism 2.0 has been largely taken on board in the European Commission’s subsequent amended proposal for a Regulation on Facilitating cross-border solutions.

The 10th European Summit of Regions and Cities held on 18 and 19 March 2024 in Mons gathered a record level of local and regional leaders from across Europe and beyond (3500 in person and 4000 online) to shape the agenda for Europe’s future, restating their power to deliver and tackle challenges at local level.

The event was an excellent celebration and showcase for cohesion policy. Excellent media coverage and institutional relations positioned the CoR as a central actor in the debate on the future MFF and cohesion policy, opening a broad debate at European level and attracting media attention regarding the possible centralisation of the MFF and of cohesion policy after 2027.

Several CoR proposals put forward in the opinion on the Ukraine Facility adopted in October 2023, found their way into the final regulation adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council in March 2024: it refers in a more substantive way to the local and regional dimension and includes more financial support for LRAs than the original proposal.

At the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Berlin in June 2024, the local and regional dimension was highlighted more than in any previous URC, including through the active participation of several CoR members. The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the reconstruction of Ukraine had addressed recommendations to the URC and had a joint stand at the conference.

The EU enlargement process must involve all society and LRAs, crucial for implementing 70% of EU legislation, managing funds and communicating the benefits of EU membership. In 2024, the CoR achieved a key milestone through the establishment of a Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) with Albania.