C 498/2
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
30.12.2022
2.
Regrets that the President of the European Commission in her State of the Union address did neither recognise the active and central role of local and regional authorities in addressing these challenges nor the need for more multi-level governance in EU policymaking and for making cohesion the overall objective of the EU, as foreseen already in the Maastricht Treaty, which introduced the principle of subsidiarity and also established the CoR;
3.
Warns that inflation is impacting territories unequally and risks further exacerbating existing territorial, social and economic inequalities.
Higher energy and transport costs are more severely impacting vulnerable groups of citizens.
People in lower-income regions suffer disproportionally from price increases for basic goods and commodities, with a risk of poverty looming;
4.
Stresses the importance of cross-border cooperation in order to further strengthen the EU socially, economically and administratively.
A third of the EU’s population lives in border regions, with larger cities or economic centres often on the other side of the border.
This untapped potential in the areas of healthcare, crisis management, energy supply, mobility, education and work must be better used and separately promoted;
5.
Calls on the European Union to support cities and regions in the EU and in Ukraine to face the challenges deriving from the war.
Rebuilding Ukraine is a necessity, a moral duty and an investment for the European Union.
The process must follow the OECD’s ‘build back better’ principle and ensure sustainable, green and digital approaches for integrated territorial development.
Rebuilding Ukraine and the repercussions of the war and the pandemic in the EU will require a clear reprioritisation in the current Multiannual Financial Framework.
The EU's municipalities, regions and Member States are already in financially strained circumstances.
Rebuilding Ukraine also needs to go hand in hand with promoting local democracy based on strong partnerships with local and regional authorities in the European Union.
A decentralised reconstruction process would also give Ukrainian citizens a perspective to stay in their country and thereby moderate further migration flows.
At the same time, the CoR rejects impediments on the immigration of Ukrainian citizens and requests a revision of Council Directive 2001/55/EC (2) on Temporary Protection as soon as possible in order to provide refugees with a residence guarantee of more than three years;
6.
Considers that the support for Ukrainian refugees should be an incentive for achieving a reform of the EU migration and asylum system based on solidarity, incentives for fair burden-sharing and respect for fundamental rights as well as the protection of external borders.
This is all the more urgent given that soaring food prices worldwide may provoke an influx of migrants to the EU’s cities and regions;
7.
Underlines that local and regional governments are also hit by skyrocketing energy bills for public services and the effects of inflation on public procurement and salaries.
Local and regional authorities need to be considered active partners in energy saving campaigns, in new renewable energy generating projects, as well as in energy disruption contingency plans in order to consider local circumstances and cross-border solutions; Also points at the potential of local renewable energy production in order to diversify the EU’s energy mix and reduce our dependence on third countries and demands that EU funding schemes, public procurement and state aid rules be adapted to also keep local investment plans operational in high inflation time;
8.
Calls on the EU institutions and Member States to deploy extraordinary measures to support local and regional authorities in their efforts to alleviate the effect of the energy crunch on households, vulnerable communities and local small and medium-sized enterprises and keep public services operational, including by allocating to them a share of the tax revenues received from the windfall profits of energy companies;
9.
Calls on the European Commission to propose without delay an EU-wide price cap on all gas imports to the European Union and to support decoupling of the price between gas and energy, which would help to mitigate the inflationary pressure;
(2)
Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences thereof (OJ L 212, 7.8.2001, p. 12).