The 8th NAT commission meeting will take place on Thursday 20 May 2021 from
11:00 to 13:00 and from 14:30 to 17:00 at the European Committee of the
Regions, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels room JDE 52.
In light of the current Covid-19 situation, the meeting will be held by
videoconference only.
Follow the meeting: here
Members of the NAT Commission and speakers will receive from the
Secretariat a specific link to access the meeting.
Meeting documents can be found here.
The following opinions will be adopted:
Resilience of critical entities
Rapporteur: Mario Guarente (ECR/IT)
We live and operate in a complex risk landscape, involving natural hazards,
state-sponsored hybrid actions, terrorism, insider threats, pandemics or
industrial accidents. The cross-border network of service provision using
key infrastructures is becoming more and more interdependent. This means
that any disruption can have cascading effects more broadly, and
potentially have significant negative impact in the delivery of services
across the internal market.
With the said proposal, the Commission intends to create an 'all-hazards
framework' to support Member States in ensuring that the critical entities
are able to prevent, resist, absorb and recover from such disruptive
incidents, no matter their cause.
Cities and municipalities are the first level of governance dealing with
disaster risk reduction and at the forefront when a disaster strikes.
Resilience concerns all levels of governance and coordination between
different levels and stakeholders is crucial. Good multilevel and
cross-sector collaboration for disaster preparedness, risk reduction and
reinforcing resilience is key to enabling communities to face threats
together and find common solutions to existing and future challenges.
New Consumer Agenda - Strengthening consumer resilience for sustainable
recovery
Rapporteur: Alexia Bertrand (BE/renew E.)
New Consumer Agenda
puts forward a vision for EU consumer policy from 2020 to 2025, focusing on
empowering EU consumers to play an active role in the green and digital
transition, on effective enforcement of consumer rights, specific needs of
certain consumer groups and on international cooperation in the field of
consumer protection.
The agenda comprises a number of actions that could involve local and
regional authorities. For most Member States, the most direct link concerns
debt advice services and provision of local advice to consumers without
access to support and information available online or offline, at central
information offices. Moreover, consumer education in general is very
important at local and regional level and should be enhanced, particularly
in schools and universities.
The pandemic showed the importance of a high level of consumer protection
as well as of close cooperation among authorities in the EU. It also
brought into light certain gaps in the EU’s consumer protection framework
while exacerbating the financial vulnerabilities of many EU households. To
address the needs of vulnerable people, such as older consumers and
consumers with disabilities, the EC indicates that local initiatives that
provide advice to consumers in rural areas or urban districts are among the
most effective.
The local and regional authorities are also important in supporting
citizens in the green transition with many creative initiatives carried out
at that level, such as local repair shops or businesses of sharing economy.
Exchange of views on:
EU action plan for organic farming
Rapporteur: Uroš Brežan (SL/GREENS)
Organic farming is one of the keys in the achievement of Europe's recovery.
The recovery should be both green and digital, by supporting rural incomes.
The Action plan for the development of organic production proposed by the
European Commission is part of the European Green Deal, which emphasizes
the need for sustainable food system. The farming community has a vital
part to play in the realization of the objectives. The organic farmers are
the future key developers of sustainable agriculture.
Land, which is farmed organically, has approximately 30% more biodiversity
than land farmed in a more conventional way. Organic farming is, for
instance, beneficial to pollinators.
Copenhagen has reached 100% organic public canteens, delivered by
approximately 25 000 hectares of land farmed organically. In Rome, 1
million organic meals are served each day in the public canteens while
Vienna has organic urban gardens of 860 ha, that delivers food to public
canteens.
The local and regional authorities plays and important role in supporting
citizens and the organic farmers in the transition towards achieving
organic production.
Europe's Beating Cancer Plan
Rapporteur: Birgitta Sacrédeus (SE/EPP)
Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the EU after
cardiovascular diseases. Europe has less than 10% of the world’s population
but a quarter of all cancer cases. Every year, 2.6 million people are
diagnosed with the disease and it kills another 1.2 million people. Without
decisive action, cancer cases are set to increase by 24% by 2035, making it
the leading cause of death in the EU. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has
had a severe effect on cancer care, disrupting treatment, delaying
diagnosis and vaccination, and affecting access to medicines.
Europe's Beating Cancer Plan is one of the main priorities in the area of
health of the current Commission. It is another stepping-stone towards a
strong European Health Union and a more secure, better-prepared and more
resilient EU. It aims to tackle the entire disease pathway, from prevention
and treatment to quality of life of cancer patients and survivors, and it
will be supported by actions spanning across policy areas from employment,
education, social policy and equality, through marketing, agriculture,
energy, the environment and climate, to transport, cohesion policy, and
taxation.