EC Commissioner Avramopoulos, President of the EU Court of Justice Koen
Lenaerts, EC First Vice-President Timmermans, join #CoRplenary
The integration of migrants and the respect of fundamental rights and
EU values in all Member States will be the centrepieces of two debates
at the European Committee of the Regions' (CoR) plenary on 10-11 April.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and
Citizenship, will take part in the launch of the CoR's new "
Cities and Regions for Integration
" initiative, while Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of
the European Union, and Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the
European Commission, will assess current threats to fundamental rights
and EU values.
WATCH #CoRplenary LIVE
– Plenary documents are
available here
10 April, 13:00 "Foyer Pawel Adamowicz": Inauguration ceremony
The plenary will be preceded by a ceremony to honour
Paweł Adamowicz
, Mayor of Gdańsk and CoR member since 2011, who was murdered in January
this year. A space of the Committee's main building will be renamed to
commemorate his life and work. Mr Adamowicz's family and his successor as
mayor, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, will join President Karl-Heinz Lambertz, for
the ceremony. Mr Adamowicz was Mayor of Gdańsk from 1998 and a member of
the European Committee of the Regions from 2011 until his death.
10 April, 15:00: Launch of the "Cities And Regions for Integration of
Migrants" Initiative #Regions4Integration
Since 2015, the European Committee of the Regions has provided a full set
of
recommendations
across the European Agenda on Migration. The Committee now wants to focus
greater attention on a particular aspect of migration in which local and
regional authorities are critical – integration – and provide a platform
for regions, cities and smaller communities to share their experiences and
positive stories.
Commissioner Avramopoulos
will be the key speaker at the launch of the initiative. He will be joined
by: Valeria Mancinelli, Mayor of Ancona and winner of the
World Mayors Prize 2018; and Annika Tännström, leader of
the Västra Götaland region in Sweden.
10 April, 17:00: Future EU budget debate
Whilst EU27 leaders meet to discuss the latest developments on Brexit, CoR
members will take stock of the negotiations on the EU's budget for 2021-27
and Brexit financial implications with Jean Arthuis, Chair
of the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament.
11 April, 10:30: Fundamental Rights and EU Values
Koen Lenaerts
, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European
Commission, will set out some of the principal concerns and questions
facing the European Union related to the respect of fundamental rights and
EU values, and will highlight issues of fundamental rights of particular
importance to local and regional leaders. They will be joined by Michael O'Flaherty, Director of the EU Agency for
Fundamental Rights, and a representative of Europe's leading human-rights
organisation, the Council of Europe – Domenica Ghidei Biidu, Vice-Chair of the European
Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe.
Other opinions to be adopted during the plenary session:
Practical information:
Location: European Parliament - Paul Henri Spaak building,
Hemicycle
Date: Wednesday, 10 April, 3pm-6pm; Thursday, 11 April, 9am-1pm.
Background material: The plenary
agenda
,
documents
&
media programme
The plenary will be
streamed live
on the CoR website
Contact:
PresseCdr@cor.europa.eu