Michael Murphy of Tipperary County Council will
lead the national delegation of Ireland to the
European Committee of the Regions, whose members
met on 11-13 February for the first time in their
new five-year mandate. He will also lead its
economic-policy commission.
Other Irish members of the EU's assembly for local and
regional authorities include Kieran McCarthy of Cork
City Council, who was on 3 February elected president
of the European Alliance, one of six political groups
in the assembly.
As head of delegation, Mr Murphy is also a member of
the executive bureau of the European Committee of the
Regions (CoR). As leader of a political group, Mr
McCarthy will be one of the eight most senior leaders
in the assembly as well as a member of its bureau.
The Committee, which was formed in 1994, has a
consultative role in the EU's decision-making, and
other institutions are obliged to seek its advice on
some issues affecting cities and regions. While CoR
members have no decision-making powers at the EU level,
their recommendations can have a significant influence
on national leaders, European commissioners, and
members of the European Parliament. The single biggest
item in the EU's budget – cohesion funding – is money
that is channelled to regional development across the
EU, including to richer regions, and many other EU
funds – such as the Common Agricultural Policy and
research – help support the economies of Irish regions.
The inaugural plenary session of the new mandate of the
CoR also saw the election of the assembly's first
president from Greece. Apostolos Tzitzikostas, governor
of Central Macedonia and member of the New Democracy
party (European People's Party), will lead the CoR for
two and a half years. Vasco Cordeiro, the governor of
the Portugal's Azores Islands, was the candidate of the
second-largest group, the Party of European Socialists.
Mr Tzitzikostas told members of the CoR that protecting
regional-development funding, implementing the EU's
Green Deal aimed at making the EU climate-neutral by
2050, and helping to be the bridge between Europe and
its citizens would be central issues of his presidency.
Cllr Michael Murphy said: "This new mandate begins at a
time of real change, with a new European Parliament
since May 2019 and a new European Commission since
January 2020 and of course, without the UK as a member
state. There are challenges around on-going
negotiations on the EU budget, in an environment of an
overall reduced financial package. The Irish delegation
is committed to making a positive contribution to
priorities that will shape the mandate of the European
Committee of the Regions including, involvement in the
Conference on the Future of Europe, the discussion on
the Green Deal to reduce carbon emissions, completing
the Digital Single Market, ensuring a robust rural
development agenda for Ireland and, of course, dealing
with the impact of the UK withdrawal from the EU."
The
Irish delegation
to the Committee of the Regions has nine full members,
from a total of 329 for the EU's 27 member states. Nine
'alternate members' will substitute for the full
members when their principal work – in their
communities – prevents them from attending to CoR
business, or when issues of particular importance to
alternate members are discussed.
Six of the full members were already members of the
Committee of the Regions. In addition to
Mr Murphy
(EPP) and
Mr McCarthy
(European Alliance), they are:
Eamon Dooley
(Renew Europe), from Offaly County Council;
Kate Feeney
(Renew Europe), of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County
Council;
Deirdre Forde
(EPP), from Cork City Council; and
Declan McDonnell
(European Alliance), of Galway City Council.
The three new full members are:
Aoife Breslin
(PES), from Kildare County Council;
Caroline Dwane Stanley
, representing Laois County Council; and
Malcolm Noonan
, of Kilkenny County Council.
Members of the CoR are selected according to national
rules. Member automatically lose their seat when they
lose their mandate from their municipal or regional
council.
In the previous mandate, between 2015 and 2020, Irish
members produced reports and recommendations on:
competition policy, the single market, research
infrastructure, the data economy, the digitisation of
industry, the EU's urban agenda. They were also leading
voices in debates shaping the Committee's response to
the United Kingdom's departure from the EU.
Contact:
Andrew Gardner
Tel. +32 473 843 981
andrew.gardner@cor.europa.eu