​ The 8th NAT commission meeting will take place on Thursday 20 May 2021 from 11:00 to 13:00 and from 14:30 to 17:00 at the European Committee of the Regions, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels room JDE 52.

In light of the current Covid-19 situation, the meeting will be held by videoconference only.

Follow the meeting: here

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Members of the NAT Commission and speakers will receive from the Secretariat a specific link to access the meeting.

Meeting documents can be found here.

The following opinions will be adopted:

Resilience of critical entities
Rapporteur: Mario Guarente (ECR/IT)

We live and operate in a complex risk landscape, involving natural hazards, state-sponsored hybrid actions, terrorism, insider threats, pandemics or industrial accidents. The cross-border network of service provision using key infrastructures is becoming more and more interdependent. This means that any disruption can have cascading effects more broadly, and potentially have significant negative impact in the delivery of services across the internal market.

With the said proposal, the Commission intends to create an 'all-hazards framework' to support Member States in ensuring that the critical entities are able to prevent, resist, absorb and recover from such disruptive incidents, no matter their cause.

Cities and municipalities are the first level of governance dealing with disaster risk reduction and at the forefront when a disaster strikes. Resilience concerns all levels of governance and coordination between different levels and stakeholders is crucial. Good multilevel and cross-sector collaboration for disaster preparedness, risk reduction and reinforcing resilience is key to enabling communities to face threats together and find common solutions to existing and future challenges.

New Consumer Agenda - Strengthening consumer resilience for sustainable recovery
Rapporteur: Alexia Bertrand (BE/renew E.)

New Consumer Agenda puts forward a vision for EU consumer policy from 2020 to 2025, focusing on empowering EU consumers to play an active role in the green and digital transition, on effective enforcement of consumer rights, specific needs of certain consumer groups and on international cooperation in the field of consumer protection.

The agenda comprises a number of actions that could involve local and regional authorities. For most Member States, the most direct link concerns debt advice services and provision of local advice to consumers without access to support and information available online or offline, at central information offices. Moreover, consumer education in general is very important at local and regional level and should be enhanced, particularly in schools and universities.

The pandemic showed the importance of a high level of consumer protection as well as of close cooperation among authorities in the EU. It also brought into light certain gaps in the EU’s consumer protection framework while exacerbating the financial vulnerabilities of many EU households. To address the needs of vulnerable people, such as older consumers and consumers with disabilities, the EC indicates that local initiatives that provide advice to consumers in rural areas or urban districts are among the most effective.

The local and regional authorities are also important in supporting citizens in the green transition with many creative initiatives carried out at that level, such as local repair shops or businesses of sharing economy.

​Exchange of views on:

EU action plan for organic farming
Rapporteur: Uroš Brežan (SL/GREENS)

Organic farming is one of the keys in the achievement of Europe's recovery. The recovery should be both green and digital, by supporting rural incomes. The Action plan for the development of organic production proposed by the European Commission is part of the European Green Deal, which emphasizes the need for sustainable food system. The farming community has a vital part to play in the realization of the objectives. The organic farmers are the future key developers of sustainable agriculture.

Land, which is farmed organically, has approximately 30% more biodiversity than land farmed in a more conventional way. Organic farming is, for instance, beneficial to pollinators.

Copenhagen has reached 100% organic public canteens, delivered by approximately 25 000 hectares of land farmed organically. In Rome, 1 million organic meals are served each day in the public canteens while Vienna has organic urban gardens of 860 ha, that delivers food to public canteens.

The local and regional authorities plays and important role in supporting citizens and the organic farmers in the transition towards achieving organic production.

Europe's Beating Cancer Plan
Rapporteur: Birgitta Sacrédeus (SE/EPP)

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the EU after cardiovascular diseases. Europe has less than 10% of the world’s population but a quarter of all cancer cases. Every year, 2.6 million people are diagnosed with the disease and it kills another 1.2 million people. Without decisive action, cancer cases are set to increase by 24% by 2035, making it the leading cause of death in the EU. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe effect on cancer care, disrupting treatment, delaying diagnosis and vaccination, and affecting access to medicines.

Europe's Beating Cancer Plan is one of the main priorities in the area of health of the current Commission. It is another stepping-stone towards a strong European Health Union and a more secure, better-prepared and more resilient EU. It aims to tackle the entire disease pathway, from prevention and treatment to quality of life of cancer patients and survivors, and it will be supported by actions spanning across policy areas from employment, education, social policy and equality, through marketing, agriculture, energy, the environment and climate, to transport, cohesion policy, and taxation.