​The joint Action Plan 2021-2022 signed today by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Under2 Coalition will reinforce cooperation to promote climate action at the regional level, expand transparency and climate data disclosure, and strengthen multilevel governance within the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Green Deal. A key goal is to ensure that the COVID-19 recovery pushes the climate agenda forward with higher environmental, economic and social resilience to better tackle future crises.

The European Committee of the Regions, together with the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) and the city of Gdańsk, announced today, at the presence of Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, the creation of the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award. The award - named after Paweł Adamowicz, mayor of Gdańsk and member of the CoR, murdered in 2019 - will honour those who fight for freedom and solidarity, and against intolerance, oppression and xenophobia.

Castelo Branco Municipality (Portugal), Gabrovo Municipality (Bulgaria), Helsinki-Uusimaa Region (Finland), Madrid Region (Spain), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (France) and Silesia Voivodeship (Poland) have been selected European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) 2021-22. Awarded by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), this label of excellence goes to regions who have demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial foresight and an intelligent growth strategy, taking into account larger societal challenges. The 2021-22 merged edition is centred around the theme "Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Recovery."

EU local and regional governments have warned of the catastrophic impact not opening borders by the summer would have on regional economies. During a debate with the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides , members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) said that the EU and its member states have made efforts to roll out vaccines, avoiding a national vaccine war, but the absence of a clear legal EU framework had led to errors that must be avoided in the future. They offered support to tackle mistrust of vaccines, to speed up the administering of vaccines, adding that vaccine certificates are a step in the right direction but should not be considered a "silver bullet".