The EU’s pilot initiative “Smart Specialisation Strategies for Sustainability" (S4) was launched in Seville today by the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Apostolos Tzitzikostas, and the Director for Growth and Innovation of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Mikel Landabaso. The initiative represents a voluntary update to the Smart Specialisation Strategies, with a stronger focus on sustainability. The JRC and CoR will cooperate on the piloting of S4 methodology in more than ten regions in Europe. 

The full respect of the "partnership principle" and its implementation under the new instruments financed by Next Generation EU, such as the Just Transition Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, are among the main requests included in the opinion adopted today by the members of the European Committee of the Region’s (CoR) Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER). Members were also briefed on the progress of the European Year of Rail and exchanged views on an opinion about the gender dimension of structural and cohesion funds 2021-2027. 

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) endorsed today the official launch of the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness and signed the Lisbon Declaration, which sets the target of eradicating homelessness in Europe by 2030. The SEDEC Commission Chair Anne Karjalainen, who represented the CoR in the high-level conference and official signing, highlighted the importance of successful regional and local approaches to tackle the phenomenon which currently affects an estimated 700 000 people in Europe.  

President of the European Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas delivers speech on behalf of the 1 million regionally and locally elected politicians and the 300 regions and 90.000 municipalities of Europe. 

Det Europæiske Regionsudvalgs (RU's) delegation til konferencen om Europas fremtid mødtes i dag for at forberede sit bidrag til den konstituerende plenarforsamling på konferencen om Europas fremtid , der finder sted i Strasbourg den 19. juni. De delegerede ønsker at udnytte de muligheder, som konferencen giver for at styrke Den Europæiske Unions demokratiske dimension og genoprette borgernes tillid til det europæiske projekt. RU er i sin egenskab af det repræsentative EU-organ, der forvaltningsmæssigt er tættest på borgerne, fast besluttet på at inddrage de lokale og regionale myndigheder i konferencen. 

Today, the European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions have launched a Stakeholder Platform to help implement the EU Action Plan: “Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil”. The Action Plan – a key deliverable of the European Green Deal and the main topic of this year’s EU Green Week – was adopted on 12 May 2021. It sets out an integrated vision for 2050 to reduce pollution to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems, as well as intermediary targets for 2030, and actions to achieve the objectives.