3.5.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 157/55
4. highlights the key role of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in co-drafting National Restoration Plans (NRPs), identifying restoration areas and determining indicators based on local priorities and community needs, public and private co-finance, stakeholder and public engagement, and executing local, integrated, place-based restoration actions; emphasises the key role of LRAs in monitoring and reporting on progress towards the targets for urban and other ecosystems that fall within the boundaries of LAUs; highlights the importance of ensuring that monitoring and reporting does not create an excessive administrative burden and that digital tools can be used to facilitate the work;
5.
insists that local and regional authorities should define the targeted ecosystems, including urban green areas and their quantitative and qualitative development needs, taking into account to their local integrated urban development, in close partnership with the Member States and managing authorities, to ensure that local conditions in terms of urban structure and nature are taken into account, as well as a fair approach to restoration across urban and peri-urban areas;
6. urges Member States to ensure that NRPs take into account the specific socioeconomic, geographic and environmental conditions and characteristics of the local area in question, the local community and regional context, as well as the relevant restoration needs, particularly in relation with highly vulnerable ecosystems such as outermost regions, islands, mountainous regions, peatlands and wetlands, or other areas rich in endemic or threatened species, and also urban ecosystems; calls for an explicit emphasis in the NRL on especially vulnerable ecosystems, acknowledging their particular conditions and restoration needs;
7.
insists to acknowledge the importance of biocultural interactions in shaping local identities and promoting high cultural and natural value farming landscapes, because they represents the core of success to recoupling cultural identity with the ecosystems on a global scale;
8.
welcomes the European Commission’s inclusion in the NRL of an extensive impact assessment that relates to the application of both subsidiarity and proportionality.
The reasoning provided — relating to the European added value of the proposal and the roll-out of measures deriving from EU competencies in the areas of environment and climate change — is in compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
However, the CoR points out that the direct and indirect effects of Article 6, such as the financial consequences and the impact on the Member State’s internal administration and judicial system, are not specified;
9.
stresses the indispensable role of ecosystems as carbon stores and a protection against the impacts of climate change.
This requires not only an end to harmful practices, such as deforestation, sealing of land and peat extraction, but also targeted protection and reconstruction, such as the restoration of streams, peatlands and wetlands;
10. points out that the Regulation needs to take account of the variations in circumstances and starting points that exist at both national and local level in terms of, for example, administrative divisions, density and green spaces, as well as local and national needs; believes that integrated approaches to urban and community development at local level should therefore be strengthened, and that definitions and requirements need to be clear and relevant across the Union;
11.
stresses the need for cities and municipalities to increase their climate resilience by protecting, promoting and restoring blue infrastructure by revitalising canals and streams and creating small watercourses; calls on the Member States, within the framework of this Regulation, to ensure that all cities and municipalities with more than 20 000 inhabitants develop, adopt and implement plans for the rapid expansion of green and blue areas;
A.
Policy integration and coherence
12. reiterates the importance of integrating the NRL with existing local, regional and other sub-national policies and strategies, and highlights the need for adequate instruments and mechanisms to strengthen the mandatory character and qualitative impact of the law at local and sub-national level.
At the same time, the CoR stresses that the capacity of local and regional authorities to contribute to the achievement of common nature objectives through local knowledge and local solutions must be increased, not hindered.
Despite the administrative structures of LAUs, urban areas need to be tackled as functional entities;
13. stresses that restoration measures, especially at local level, are part of climate change action and urban planning, which must be implemented by cities and regions through ambitious policies that transcend administrative boundaries, with assessment of the overall effectiveness of each measure;