Trade effects of Brexit likely to become clearer only after 1 October, senior EU official tells EU and UK local and regional politicians at meeting that puts spotlight on Northern Ireland and Gibraltar. Movement across the United Kingdom's borders with Ireland and Spain were central issues discussed at a meeting of British and EU local and regional politicians that focused on connections at risk of being lost by the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

EU har brug for en "ny demokratisk infrastruktur" for at sikre frie og retfærdige valg, forbedre mediepluralismen og fremme borgernes engagement, lød det fra Det Europæiske Regionsudvalg den 30. juni. I en række anbefalinger, der skal styrke demokratiet, ligestillingen og respekten for menneskerettighederne, understregede de kommunale og regionale ledere, at de subnationale myndigheder kan spille en vigtig rolle i indsatsen for at fremme mediekendskab, kritisk tænkning og gennemsigtighed i politiske kampagner samt støtte borgernes deltagelse i politik.

Det Europæiske Regionsudvalg åbner sammen med netværket International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) og byen Gdańsk op for indstillinger til 2021-udgaven af borgmester Paweł Adamowicz-prisen for udvist mod og særligt engagement inden for fremme af frihed, solidaritet og ligestilling.

Populism, nationalism, disinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories are widespread in the European public and political sphere, which is leading to polarisation and intolerance. The deterioration of fundamental rights in one Member State has a negative impact across the EU. Therefore, in the 8th meeting of the CIVEX Commission, members welcomed the European Commission's initiative on the European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP) and adopted an opinion that puts forward a set of proposals for tackling disinformation and hate speech, as well as for promoting media literacy and critical thinking, including the setting up of a European agency linked with the CoR. The members also pointed out that local and regional leaders can play an important role in strengthening citizenship, as they are the closest authorities to citizens and the ones that aremost trusted, according to the EU annual regional and local barometer published in October 2020 .