C 301/14
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
5.8.2022
22. stresses that setting up a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) involving a partner from only one EU Member State, including its outermost regions, and one local or regional authority from the UK may be possible and suggests that EU Member States may consider this tool, if consistent with its territorial cooperation, in seeking collaborations with the UK;
23. regrets that the impact of Brexit has not been taken into account by the European Commission in the 8th Cohesion Report.
The impact has contributed to the disruption of the economy, interregional cooperation, research ecosystems, training systems and demography for a certain number of EU regions.
The European Committee of the Regions would like to see geopolitical developments better taken into account in the prospective approach to the post-2027 period;
24.
welcomes the fact that UK cities and regions are still actively involved in many EU networks and associations, such as the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and are expected to remain within certain European associative frameworks such as the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), Eurocities and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and that these mechanisms provide for excellent exchange of experiences between UK and EU LRAs;
25. expresses confidence that cooperation between EU and UK LRAs will continue through twinning, considering that around 100 UK towns and cities (9) have a twinning link with towns and cities in EU Member States; urges the partnerships to continue to explore possible funding methods to support this work, as these partnerships foster sharing of best practices, mutual understanding and common values and are essential to a European way of life;
26. recognises the importance of educational exchanges for students’ mobility and joint research, as well as the development of language skills and human ties and supports the efforts of UK devolved administrations to open new avenues for cooperation beyond the TCA framework;
27. pays particular tribute to the Welsh ‘Taith’ programme (10) and welcomes both the Welsh and Scottish international learning exchange programmes, which may at least in part compensate the withdrawal of the UK from Erasmus+ and fill in the gaps left by the UK national Turing Programme (11);
28. notes that there is a visible trend towards a bilateralisation of relations at subnational level as illustrated by the opening of representations of EU regions in London and elsewhere in UK.
The devolved nations in the UK also pursue agendas of ‘global nations’, which prioritise bilateral relationships with European regions.
In England, cities and metropolitan areas also initiate bilateral cooperation projects as evidenced, i.e. by the Greater Manchester and North Rhine-Westphalia partnership.
While welcoming bilateral relationships, the CoR suggests that this bilateralisation should not be at the expense of local and regional authorities in countries with weaker capacities at subnational level and this support should not be perceived as competing with the CoR’s objective to obtain an institutional recognition of the subnational dimension of the EU-UK relationship;
29. sees untapped prospects for cooperation between EU and UK local and regional authorities in jointly engaging on common challenges, such as providing humanitarian assistance, the sustainable management of the North Sea, the Channel and the Irish Sea, as well as the global fight against climate change, the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at local and regional level and the shift towards more sustainable and digital tourism.
In this regards, supports the idea launched by the United Kingdom and France to ensure minimum wages for seafarers and workers operating on intra-European links, i.e. also between the UK and the European Union;
30. stresses that the relationship between EU and UK regions is also based on common cultural heritages, languages, and Celtic (language) connections, amongst others, shared European values and histories amongst our citizens.
(9) (10) (11)
Office of National Statistics, UK, 2018 Data, published in September 2020: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationand community/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/twinnedtownsandsistercities Five-year programme (2022 to 2026) programme launched in February 2022 with Welsh Government funding up to EUR 65 million.
Which offers no reciprocity, a one-year duration, and a focus on academic staff rather than students.