Increase the size of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve from EUR 5 billion to EUR 6 billion; adapt the support for fisheries to regional impact; provide more flexibility with regard to state aids and involve local and regional representatives in the designing and managing processes of the new instrument. These are the main requests included in the opinion drafted by Loïg Chesnais-Girard (FR/PES), president of the Brittany region, adopted by the Plenary of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, will on 17 March make his first address to the European Committee of the Regions, starting a plenary session that will bring into focus local and regional perspectives on policies to end the COVID-19 pandemic and to promote a green and inclusive economic recovery. Four European Commissioners will lead debate about COVID-19 vaccinations and building resilience in EU's regions, the economic recovery package, the Green Deal, and integration of migrants. An award to honour the memory of Paweł Adamowicz, late mayor of Gdańsk, will be launched and the winners of the European Entrepreneurial Region Award will be announced.

The CoR-CEMR work points out that only a few countries took on local-regional authorities' input, thereby threatening the successful implementation of the Recovery Plan for Europe. The results of the joint consultation were presented during the meeting of the Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). Members of the ECON also adopted by unanimity the draft opinion on the Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials, undertaken by Isolde Ries (DE/PES), First Vice-President of the Saarland Regional Parliament.

Local and regional politicians from the European Union voiced short-term relief mixed with long-term caution and concern at their first meeting with UK counterparts since the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement was settled on 24 December. Politicians from both the EU and the United Kingdom emphasised a wish to develop new ties in the wake of an agreement that ended most region-to-region programmes and envisages no role for regions in overseeing and developing the deal.