The second plenary meeting of the Fit for Future (F4F) Platform for better and less burdensome EU legislation chaired by European Commission’s Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maroš Šefčovič took place on 4 March with three CoR members Mark Speich (DE/EPP), Anne Karjalainen (FI/PSE) and Ulrika Landergren (SE/RE) and 27 representatives of EU Member States. Purpose of the meeting was to discuss and agree on the annual work programme of the Platform and its rules of procedures. The CoR advocated for having topics in the work programme in the fields of public procurement, ambient air quality legislation, cross-border healthcare and state aid legislation. All these proposals were taken up by the Platform.

On Thursday afternoon, members of the CoR commission for Natural resources and their counterparts from the Parliament’s Agriculture committee discussed ways to boost recovery in Europe's rural areas and to enable regions to continue to play their role in the preparation and management of future Common Agricultural Policy. MEPs and local leaders agreed that the EU’s future rural development policy must be more ambitious and contain a concrete policy framework that will be monitored and evaluated.

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) discussed with Janusz Wojciechowski , European Commissioner for Agriculture, how to boost recovery in Europe's rural areas. Regions and cities demand a 'Rural Deal' to set targets and coordinate Common Agricultural Policy, structural funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility to overcome the crisis in rural areas, strengthen cohesion, make the agro-food industry greener, support local producers and diversify growth opportunities in rural communities. The Rural Deal should also provide for an inclusive governance mobilising EU, national, regional and local actors to deliver a sustainable recovery in Europe's rural areas. These points were reinforced in an opinion on the EU Strategy for Rural Revival (a real call for Rural Agenda) backed by CoR members.

Local and regional leader called today on the European Commission Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič, to devote every effort to mitigating the effects of the global pandemic and to bring local and regional authorities to the core of the EU resilience and recovery agenda. They stressed their readiness to actively contribute to the design and implementation of European Commission's key initiatives such as the health related covid-19 response, the Climate Pact or the recovery and resilience facility.