C 301/18
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
5.8.2022
20. points out that the Recovery and Resilience Facility is also an opportunity to support the NEB within the Member States and local authorities;
21. points out that NEB should be aligned with the 2021-2027 MMF and the EU Urban Initiative and adequate funding to cover the operational costs of local and regional authorities contributing to the NEB should be available; calls for ambitious roadmaps for the implementation of the NEB to be used within the framework of the SDGs;
22. asks that geographical balance, as well as the climate, economic, social and cultural diversity of the EU be taken into account, as well as funding opportunities and the allocation of funds, when designing and implementing NEB strategies, projects and actions and territorial cohesion should remain one of the key objectives;
Indicators 23. stresses that local and regional authorities should, in the limits of their competencies, monitor to what extent national governments use the NEB in the various programmes, tools and procedures and expects the European Commission to present clear indicators for such monitoring;
24. is concerned that there are no indicators in the current EU funding cycle (2021-2027) and this is a missed opportunity for measuring success;
25. considers that the NEB core principles should be developed in partnership with local and regional governments and considers that the NEB core principles should be mainstreamed as quality criteria for EU funding programmes with a direct or indirect impact on the built environment, urban and rural development, cultural heritage and cultural landscapes;
26. suggests that a NEB regional scoreboard should be created to establish a strong regional monitoring policy that will ensure that the NEB is implemented at all levels and that regional investments act on the NEB’s principles;
27. notes that LRAs are responsible for large stocks of local public buildings and urban public spaces and play an important regulatory and funding role in the renovation of these buildings and urban areas.
Accordingly, LRAs should focus on identifying regulatory bottlenecks and contribute to simplifying regulation and devising new regulatory approaches;
28. highlights that the CoR has been involved in developing and supporting climate, energy and environment strategies at local and regional levels.
The Green Deal Going Local Working Group could be used to promote the NEB principles and to monitor success;
29. underlines that dialogue between LRAs on open innovative concepts and processes, interdisciplinary approaches and competences is crucial.
This should include the NEB on the CoR’s Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP), the Science Meets Regions programme and cooperation projects funded by other EU programmes;
30. emphasises that the NEB should promote gender equality.
Gender equality should be a cross-cutting criterion and is a powerful and necessary factor in the sustainable and balanced development of cohesion policy;
The NEB Festival, prizes and lab concept 31. welcomes the first NEB prize and suggests that synergies be identified with existing awards for housing, cultural heritage, contemporary architecture and landscapes.
Also calls for good practices from the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage to be shared;
32. acknowledges the creation of the European Seal of Excellence as a first step towards the NEB label concept, but is concerned that people may expect the NEB Label to have a funding stream.
The use of a dedicated label could be considered as a tangible CoR contribution to the development of the NEB initiative, as advocated by the CoR in 2021;