​​​Michael Murphy was elected chair of the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) at the Committee´s constitutive meeting on 13 February. Mr Murphy, member of the Tipperary County Council, will chair the ECON commission's work during the first 2,5 years of the new five-year mandate.

The ECON commission's main role is to shape EU decision-making on industrial policy, SME policy ,economic and monetary policy, economic governance, the european semester, the internal market, international trade and tariffs, public procurement as well as competition and state aid policy by putting forward the views of Europe's cities and regions.

Mr Murphy has been a member of the CoR since 2016. He was rapporteur in the ECON Commission on the 'European Commission Report on Competition Policy 2016' and is currently working on the opinion on 'the Implementation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs): The regional and local perspective'.

The new first vice-chair for the ECON commission is Dainis Turlais (LV/Renew Europe), mayor of Riga, and the second vice-chair is Robert Sorin Negoiță (RO/PES), Mayor of District 3, Bucharest Municipality.

The European Committee of the Regions has in total six thematic commissions.

• Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER)
• Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX)
• Commission for the Environment, Climate change and Energy (ENVE)
• Commission for Natural Resources (NAT)
• Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC)
• Commission for Economic Policy (ECON)
  

Contact:

Carmen Schmidle
Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2366
carmen.schmidle@cor.europa.eu