President Dahl, dear Prime Minister Blankiewicz, dear EPP friends, dear watchers of this live stream, Dobro Jutro and Dobro Doshli, good morning and welcome. It's a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the local dialogue of the EPP group in the European Committee of the Regions here in Zagreb, the beautiful, the very beautiful capital of Croatia. As you know, our event this morning is taking place in the framework of the EPP Congress. Before giving the floor to the EPP President Joseph Dahl for his opening remarks, I would like to use this chance here to express our sincere gratitude for the close cooperation and for the productive partnership between the EPP party and the EPP group in the COR over the past years. President Joseph Dahl, dear Joseph, I would like to thank especially you for your strong leadership in keeping the EPP family united and for your firm commitment to the well use of freedom, subsidiarity and solidarity. Dear Joseph, I know that in a hurry today you have a lot of appointments so I give the floor directed to you now. Thank you. Dear Prime Minister Andrei Plenkovich, dear President Schneider, I greet all the commissioners that I haven't seen, because it's dark in the room, dear President, dear Vice President, dear members of the EPP Committee of the Regions, but also dear colleague Merv, dear intervenants, dear friends. It's a pleasure for me to participate in the opening of this event organized in the framework of the local dialogue of the EPP by our group at the Committee of Regions in partnership with HTCN. I would like to first thank you for this excellent initiative launched in March 2018, which played an important role in our campaign for the European elections. And by organizing in the four corners of Europe the debates on the issues dear to the Europeans, you have made honour to your mission to bring Europe closer to its citizens, to renew the dialogue with them, to offer them clear solutions to the problems they face in their lives every day. You know that. I have always supported you in this important mission. While I leave the President of the EPP, I am happy to be able to trust you and to say that our friend Donald Tusk will continue to listen to you and to support you. My friends, as always, you have chosen a subject of the most relevant and relevant, the European investments in our regions and in our cities. Because contrary to those who believe that it is in the States and the European institutions to create employment and growth, we know that this is the role of the companies. The political decision-makers must limit themselves to creating the ideal conditions so that these last ones can develop and prosper, which means the release of administrative constraints, creating conditions of equitable competition at the international level and of course also favoring investments. When we talk about investments, our thoughts are immediately at the forefront. You will remember that during this launch by Vice President Katainen, the critics said that he would never reach the initial objective of the 315 billion euros of mobilized investments. Well, today, we are already at 440 billion which has taken advantage of more than a million PMEs. And this figure is destined to grow in the coming years. Just like the number of jobs created by the FSI-sponsored projects, already 1,100,000 to this day. Each of our cities and your regions has very concretely seen this impact. And thanks to the Juncker Plan, more than 500,000 affordable housing were built or renovated. 33 million Europeans benefit from a better system of waste treatment. 182 million of your fellow citizens can take advantage of urban and rail transport, more efficient and sustainable. 8 million lines have been activated at the very beginning. Just like in Croatia, my dear Prime Minister, the FSI projects should mobilize more than a billion euros in investments. And among the beneficiaries, we find innovative PMEs like RIMAC, Automobili, which develops point technology for electric cars, or the HPE Electric Company, which will build a new electric power plant here in Sagrada. Dear friends, some concrete examples of how we can, when we give ourselves the means, improve the daily lives of Europeans. You should remind your fellow citizens to show them that Europe is here, that it is present and that it is taking care of their future. Also, to continue to ensure this mission, we must take into account a European budget, at the highest, ambitious and turning towards the future, which invests in our greatest wealth, people. If we are here to talk about this, it is certainly not our fault. We have been ready for PPE for a long time, since 2017. PPE launched its working group on the financial framework that had been launched on adoption in January 2018, of our priorities for the post-2020 budget. Unfortunately, some countries, including mine, have been blocked by the European Council. In the sense that it has become elusive to change everything, without knowing how and in the illusion of being able to return to the table later, they have prevented negotiations to end before the European elections. And now, we are at the top of 2020, without any visibility for the future. This must not continue. Our local and regional communities, our companies, our fellow citizens need clarity and stability to make their decisions for the future. European funds are taking advantage of our students. Researchers and farmers can no longer be blocked by partisan interests. It is therefore more likely that negotiations are moving forward very quickly. Europe must be equipped with the most possible budget that allows it to continue the policies that have allowed it to improve the lives of Europeans, such as the policies at school that are very expensive, as well as the policies of cohesion, all anticipating the challenges of the future. Each euro must be spent responsibly and really make the difference for our fellow citizens by ensuring their future. Here, my friends, you have a key role to play, because local and regional students are the key to our policies. No one knows better than you, your fellow citizens, the local realities, the needs of your communities, and it is up to you to share this knowledge so that we can invest in a targeted and effective way, up to you to propose the priority projects, to you to make the projects financed by Europe be discovered. Once again, I give you a challenge, as usual. Every day, say something positive about the European Union to see the constant noise made by the populists with their empty slogans. This is how we can renew the dialogue with the citizens, restore their confidence in Europe as my friends. If the mandate of the President of the PPE has given me a lot of satisfaction, it is that of the mother who will never be engraved in my heart. These are our mothers, our local students, our regional students who will advance this Europe that we love in every village and in every city and who will make sure that our fellow citizens fall in love with the European project again. And that is how we will ensure our prosperity and also continue the 70 years before we passed. That is what I wish you. Thank you very much for listening. Dear President Dahl, dear Joseph, thank you very much for your words, for your intervention here in our local dialogue. And once again, thank you very much for all your support to the group of the EPP in the COR in the last years. I think the fact that you have been a mayor yourself makes it more and better understandable your commitment in our cooperation. I wish you on behalf of all our colleagues, all the EPP regional and local politicians, I wish you all the best for your future and for today a very successful Congress. Ladies and gentlemen, Postovani Prime Minister Plenkovich, dear Prime Minister Plenkovich, I would also like to warmly welcome you to our EPP-COR local dialogue. I express my deepest gratitude to you and our friends from the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, for the warm hospitality that you have shown to us, that you are showing to us, to us members of the EPP group, without your commitment, without your support, this dialogue would not have been possible and our presence here today in this way would not have been possible. Dear Prime Minister Plenkovich, I give the floor to you in a hurry because I know that you are also in a hurry, you also have, of course, a lot of appointments today, so please, the floor is yours. Dear President Schneider, Chef Joseph Draginikola, Postovani Minister Malenica, dear friends, it is really a pleasure for me to welcome you in Zagreb in the framework of the 26th Congress of the European People's Party with this dialogue that the EPP group and the Committee of the Regions is organizing here today. The Committee of the Regions is one of the very important European institutions. We respect the work that you do. We respect the voice that comes from the local and regional governments. We respect the message that you send every day in your endeavors to try to make Europe tangible to the every single village, city, or region in Europe. This is your added value. This is what you stand for and this is where we, from the levels of the national governments, are here to support you. Croatia has, in the past, a little bit more than three years, while I have the honor to enjoy the confidence of the Croatian voters as the Prime Minister, insisted on improving the concept of decentralization. We are the government that has established the dynamics and the intensity of the dialogue with our counties and here especially Nikola, who is not only leading the Croatian group of the EPP within the Committee of the Regions since 2013, but is one of our most experienced and the long-standing prefects of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Very much understands that no other Croatian government is so dynamic and so open in coordinating the national priorities with the strategic projects in all parts of Croatia. We have made considerable efforts in improving the functional decentralization. That is to say, we have given more powers, more competencies to counties. On the 1st of January, under the leadership of Minister Malenica, we shall complete the merger of the offices of the State Administration with the counties, thus giving more power and more responsibilities to those who are elected within the principle of subsidiarity in the closest manner to their fellow citizens. We have also made substantial steps in improving the fiscal decentralization. So we have not only intensified the dialogue, given more powers and more work to do, but also given the means to the counties, cities and villages much more than any Croatian government before. Only last two years, more than 3 billion Kunas have been left for the work and the projects of the counties, cities and villages. At the same time, we are a facilitator for the local authorities to use the biggest power of the investment in my country, and that is important to remember. Public investments actually comes from the absorption of the European Union funds. These 80% are many times operated and the final beneficiaries are the regions and the cities in Croatia. That's why this comprehensive approach that we have established is making fruits in attaining the main objective of the balanced regional development of the parts of our country. That simply embodies the policy of the cohesion, one of the two traditional EU policies that many of the countries, especially still from Central and Eastern Europe and we as the latest member of the Union, want to accentuate also within the next multi-annual financial framework. What I would also like to mention that everything that we are doing in the European point of view it should be oriented towards incentivizing the investments of the private sector. That's why the EFSI that was mentioned by Joseph is important for a balanced and more dynamic economic growth across Europe. I am really happy that you will have debates today and that Nikola and other colleagues who are here, more Croatian prefects and mayors than usual. This type of event will get familiar with the works and the substance of our European political family and that is the EPP. My big appreciation once again to everything that Joseph has done for us as president over the last six years but also previously in his entire political work. Merci beaucoup, Joseph and I wish you a very good stay in Croatia. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Blenkovich for your words and for having been here and now dear friends, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen it's my pleasure to welcome a guest who's not in the program but who I'm very happy to welcome for a short intervention. It's the secretary general of our EPP party Antonio Lopez. We have many reasons for gratitude towards him because in the last years it was also him who was willing to cooperate with us and to take on board our proposals and our initiatives. I welcome you with great pleasure. You are running today again for the post of secretary general and I can say that my support you have and I'm sure you will also have the support of my colleagues so please the floor is yours. I guess I'm not going to mention everybody because it's very dark here so I cannot see you well. In any case of course I saw my good friend and our prime minister in Croatia Andrej Blenkovich president of DPP Joseph Dahl I saw also coming another member of the presidency of DPP the mayor of Warsaw Rafael Traskowski who's here with us and you know I may have said that what a pleasure for me is to be with you and that you are in the congress of DPP. It's a long time since I became secretary general and tell you the truth the committee of the regions DPP group in the committee of the regions did not have this kind of coordination with the party so it's an honor that you are here and it's very important for all of us. You know I have told you and we have made the bet from the party also Joseph who is an expert in local politics also told us to work in this sense local politics is everything European politicians we are called bureaucrats we are far away we are in Brussels in the bubble and you are the ones that you are next to the people for the good and for the bad you receive your critics you are also praised but you are the ones that can speak about Europe to the people that sometimes as us members of European parliament we cannot do in the same sense there are so some of us that we are much more dedicated to this and others not so so it's your effort that really helps us I think that still we have not done enough I think that the group of DPP in the committee of the regions has to be the representation of the group in the committee of the regions has to be enhanced inside DPP and I'm talking with Mihail and your good secretary general Heinz Knapp to improve also the collaboration and the presence for also for that we need you not only to elaborate on the solutions for the committee of the regions of course but also for us for the DPP today we are discussing about climate change about western Balkans about many things but we need also your ideas and your inputs about local politics what we all call real politics in your towns in your cities in your regions is where policy is made I'm a firm believer in subsidiarity although I would like to change the world because when I speak about subsidiarity no one understands me and I think it happens to you also what we need is to find the real world that means that you are the bridge between Brussels and what's been in Brussels and local politics I'm telling you I'm optimistic things are going well not enough for that I have Michael Snyder always remembering this in haste also cooperation that we have to work on and just to tell you how grateful we are that you are all here, that you did an effort because you are in the day-to-day politics and it's not easy for you to come to Sagrep but it's very important thank you they're also telling me that a very dear friend who has just won Fandakova is here with us also and I'm very tough election that she won very tough I know that against all odds so we are very proud of this victory in Sofia, thank you very much and also it's not about also your politics but also national politics your parties are improving in many European countries but we have still much work ahead thank you for coming and next time we'll be in Brussels that I will go there to see that the promises are made thank you thank you very much we have it on record now what you said and we will use it in the future thanks a lot and I can only underline what you said the regional and local politicians we always say that we always repeat that they are the closest to the citizens we want to reconnect the European Union with the European citizens we need the engagement the involvement of the regional of the local politicians especially of EPP and the strength of EPP local politicians is proved today by the presence of two mayors already mentioned Mrs. Fandakova and Mr. Czarskowski two mayors from European capitals who won the elections against all the difficulties that are in this this big city so congratulations for your success thank you that you are also here today and Tono I wish you success in the election dear friends I will now give the floor and the microphone to the moderator of our panels today not without repeating my gratitude my thanks to the Croatian delegation in the EPP group of the Committee of the Regions under the leadership of Nikola Dobroslavic my very good friend we have been working together since many years now you were the first Croatian EPP politician that I met in the Committee of the Regions when you came as observer before the accession of Croatia so now you will have the floor you will moderate the two panels thank you very much all the participants of these panels it's very helpful for us and it's of great worth for our work and I think we will have a very good dialogue today here this morning thank you very much Nikola Thank you President of the Republic of Croatia President of the Republic of Croatia comes from the HDZ HDZ precedes the majority in the Croatian parliament president of the government as you know and the government of HDZ and the majority from all regions of Japan the municipality comes from HDZ we will have two panels here today they will last for 30 minutes I hope we will be able to hold on to that time because after the panels in 1945 we have another part of our program our housekeeper colleague Eylko Turk organized a studio visit to Zaprešić in one building there will be a legal handle we have to be very precise short in terms to get in 1945 to come to the bus I invite you also to use social networks there you will see the hashtag on which you can call here in any case we start with the first panel which we called the European Union of Citizens seeking to make these solutions together with the regions and cities for this important topic we have three respected panelists who will present and ask them to come from one of these tables that we have arranged here this is Rafal Časkovski, the mayor of Warsaw our second representative will be Marku Markula president of the region Helsinki and the first president of the European region and the third representative will be Deider Ford, the mayor of Korka I remind you on the need who will answer I will also be short Mr Časkovski last year you were the mayor of Warsaw it is a great pleasure for us to gather on the European side in the election of the region also to present your success in the elections how are you in the unfriendly campaign for you and your government managed to achieve such an exceptional victory Thank you very much Hello I wish you success and I will switch into English yes I mean it was a very difficult campaign and it wasn't easy to win it the important thing was to be close to the people everybody knows that this is a slogan this is a cliche but what does it really mean it means that you have to speak a different language to different people Warsaw is a pretty big city we decided really to have a very long pre-campaign the actual campaign it took us more than 10 months and I was everywhere I listened to the people and I decided to create a program by talking to them and therefore we discovered that different districts have different preoccupations in Warsaw there are quite a lot of differences as in every big city the expectations of living of life in the poorest district of Warsaw that's for a male 68 years old in the richest it's 82 I mean the difference of 14 years it's really incredible which means that you really have to address completely different problems when you are in the districts which are relatively rich which are well communicated with the city center when it comes to public transportation there you talk about quality of air quality of life in general access to preschools and so on and of course in those districts which are a bit round down you talk about different preoccupations for example actually contacting the houses or doing networking with the central heating systems because this is the problem you have to simply connect some of the apartments which are not connected to the heating system and then you also employ a different language but most importantly you are on the streets and remember that the press was not happy because we didn't do huge billboards and we were attacked by the government who owns this four channels of public TV churns out propaganda all the time people were complaining the pundits were complaining that I'm not visible but I was there and I was there with the people on the streets and at the end of the day it really proved to be a winning strategy because I was elected in the first round of the vote that no one expected because at the end of the day if you're close to the people if you really react to what they want you to do if you earn your credibility then there is a possibility of winning it and the last thing I want to tell you what we started with was a program for women we started talking about empowering women really introducing a change in which chances would be equal but it wasn't just a slogan what we did we promised free preschools and that's what we've done in a year we were able to double the number of places in preschools in Warsaw to 13,000 and they're now all for free we built preschools but we also asked entrepreneurs to create those places so that women can actually have a place where they can leave their kids and then perfect their abilities work and so on and so forth and also other points like the program which were about health which were about equal chances which were about equal pay and it turned out to be really important because women voted for me I mean 10% more women voted for me than men so I mean if you really attack concrete problems and then when you earn your credibility you can win even against the machinery of the state when it's used against you as it was in Warsaw thank you my colleague Marko clean and low-income innovations are presented by one of the priorities of the Finnish president who is running and also from the European side we are aiming at the form of mobility which is holding energy production and saving the environment many new technologies are coming up quickly to make it possible you can give an example of a realistic solution which the new commission could create in partnership with the regions and cities and this would be a response to climate change how the presidents of the region city leaders and leaders can better cooperate with the business sector and researchers of the European universities thank you and great to be here and great that we are hosting this debate but let me first stress that everywhere this is very much the local issue but then we need to think globally as well I was just a week ago one of the hosts of the clope energy award big big final ceremonies in my city the western part of Helsinki region where we had award winners from all around the world and that showed that locally people can do much more most cases it was together with industry, large and small together with some universities or in many cases different ages of children from schools they take good care we had a good example of the eastern Kampua area where the use of solar panels had created the huge opportunities for local children actually to go to school organize the school in a new way, be connected globally and let's say enjoy the life so the well-being of citizens needs to be very very high on that another example there from my own city was really the collaboration between city universities and especially industry because we cannot the public sector we cannot do the changes alone we need to work very much with the industry we showcase with three companies and then the public municipality water system provider so what can be done when we work in good collaboration create joint action plans as in our case a Helsinki region the whole region is very well covered by district heating today but we need to get rid of using coal so moving to carbon neutrality several cities, my city is included we have put already the target to be carbon neutral much much earlier than we in general request based on the Paris agreement we want to be carbon neutral by 2030 and one important step on that is already six years from now so 2025 we are not anymore using coal in our district heating instead we have one very challenging technology initiative by the private sector making a six kilometer deep hole or actually two holes on the ground geothermal and providing 10% of our whole energy for the district heating of the city then we have of course heat pumps we have just constructing by the company Hortum we are creating the biofuel power stations we are taking heat out of the water water system it's essential on that we are taking heat the energy out of the data centers and so on so there's many parallel activities and all of those so we need as well the city but strong support from the citizens that we are kind of creating a joint energy grid system measuring systems we can all do our things so what I can only say with the strongly on this so that the Europe of the future is really Europe of citizens and that means that everyone needs to be involved and we can share and we need to share our best practices and that from that perspective the work of the committee of the regions is so crucial so we collaborate more we create more European partnerships and that's why cohesion financing and collaboration based on that is so crucial Thank you Marku Mr. Ford you are part of the leading generation of Irish politicians who are the main political priorities for Cork and where do you see the need that EU investment turns the priorities into concrete projects how do you deal with other European cities and the government under Lee has recently determined that Cork is to be the fastest growing city in Ireland in the next 20 years we intend to grow our city from 120 population to 340 and we will achieve that target we want to build instead of houses and neighbourhoods we want to build homes and communities we want to build in the world of accelerated global trends such as organisation, digitalisation and time at action of course so we are very well aware of the benefits of the EU because in the last while the EU has contributed significantly to the Cork area in particular we opened a bridge in Cork which was funded by the EU and that bridge was very relevant to the people on the ground when we talk about cohesion and subsidiarity and all that the man in the street or the woman in the street it doesn't resonate with them but a bridge that they can utilise everyday does so we are very grateful for the funding there and we also got funding of 13 million for our port of Cork which is so important to us and our education institutions we got a building fund of substantial millions so we are very well aware of the benefits of the EU and working closely currently we have 19 projects in collaboration with our EU neighbours and we intend to build on that it's networking as well so we hope to give back what we get by interacting with our other countries but it's in the business of collaboration and neighbourliness rather than just taking and taking thank you Well, yes, I mean, I was both in national politics Minister of European Affairs and digitisation, you are right I was also in European politics a member of the European Parliament and the important thing is that it's difficult to to make that link if you do not want to to make that link if you do not want to if you do not want to to make that link if you are not concrete enough and now all the challenges that cities face now actually are the global challenges or most of the global challenges that the European Union faces and tries to tackle for example now in Warsaw everyone talks about quality of life what does that mean it means air quality and fighting climate change and obviously this is one of the biggest challenges that is before the European Union if we talk about integrating migrants and we want, and this was my slogan to make Warsaw an open city a transparent city this is also something that is tackled on the European level I mean, those issues even though, I mean, we would think normally about local politics that this is about congestion and waste management and so on and so forth yes it is, but waste management is also regulated on the European level so at the end of the day we go into concrete examples that whatever we do in the cities we need know how we need, as you said to produce certain added value and we can do it by exchanging data, by cooperating together by creating common programs by trying to access EU funds together in order to change the reality because if we do not accept certain standards, certain values on the European level, on a national level then it is very difficult to invite them on a local level when it comes to the challenges that I have just enumerated and even sometimes, you know we on the local level, the mayors of the cities are sometimes at the forefront of change, we are much more progressive and much more ready to attack those challenges because there is no calculation at the end of the day, you know, people will see and check whether the quality of air is better or whether we are integrating others in our city to a better degree and the European Union can only help in that through setting out the right priorities and through helping out in concrete programs that's why we cooperate with other mayors that's why I'm looking forward to being in the committee of the regions in order to create those networks, we work together I'm a treasurer of the Euro cities we also work in the C40 to combat climate change and now the important thing and with that I will end is to do lobbying together when it comes to the final legislative proposals and that's what I'm looking forward to I'm looking forward to being in the committee of the regions but also for example for proposals such as direct access by urban areas and cities to EU funds such proposals are on the table and these are very important especially when you take into account difficult and I will use that word wisely and in a sense it is a euphemism in my case difficult governments where we really want to be more progressive and demonstrate the added value of acting together of creating the right networks in order to influence the priorities and then translate them into re-election Thank you Mr. Marcula, program Digital Europe provides 9.2 billion investments after 2020 in improving international competition and digital capacity of the EU you said that the key question is how to make the program so attractive that the regions and cities accelerate European, digital and economic transformation and increase public and private investments what should be done through this program to make local and regional changes to develop a strong entrepreneurial mentality and become increasingly transparent Thank you for the let's say challenging question but let me first say that this is directly linked to the increasing the investments in Europe but here I don't mean only focusing or investments on infrastructure or buildings but it's investments in human capital intellectual capital where let's say new developments innovations are crucial part we need to invest in schools and get our younger generation to be really leaders on this digitalization in very concrete terms and here now looking especially forward for the new commission one of our good collaborators with regions and cities has always recent years been Maria Gabrielle and now when she moves from digitalization to education lifelong learning innovation so this is really a good chance to continue and I've used quite often the example so what we from Helsinki and Finland what we have been doing with the Sofia and Cabravo in Bulgaria so collaborating concrete terms and learned from this so that the action really is there local and now with the help of this digital Europe so we put the strong pressure so that it's this means in one term so that every region in Europe so around 200 digital innovation hubs will be created in the coming years and we want to speed that up and this digitalized innovation hubs are what again use the Bulgarian experience what we or the Tania Ristova the mayor of Cabravo has done organizing innovation camps getting local young children local industry and other parts of the country and abroad as well to collaborate through these innovation camps finding the new way for a smaller city as well reindustrializing the city and focusing very strongly on this human capital and this is what the digitalization means as well so it's a mental change mindset so that school is not anymore a building if I use this example school is more the mentality the mindset on learning and there we can do a lot and this is how the one way that we work in my city and region and we were very happy actually that Finland it's not just the happiest country in the world beating especially Denmark and other Scandinavian collaborators but as well we now and the latest regional EU scoreboard became the number one region in innovation and that means that we need to take the responsibility sharing these experience and getting the younger generation but as well adult senior citizens to collaborate more and share those good solutions and that's the future that's the partnerships and communities we just heard about the Cork or Marso as well so it needs to operate with the communities of people Thank you Marku Gospodjoford Evropski odborregia omogučuje izabranim regional i lokalnim čelnicima Komunicirati i utiecati na Evropska pitanja kako bi se pronašla rješenja za mnoge regionalne i lokalne izazove Uzimači obzir mnogobrojne pirejetne demokracii danas možetele podjelitis nama neke ideje o tome kako regionalni i lokalni političari zajedno sa Evropskim i nacionalnim mogu ojačati poverenje ljudi u demokrackej vrijednosti i u Evropski projekt Kolikoče Evropska dimenzija biti za vas značajna za vrjeme vašega We are fortunate in Ireland that a recent poll suggested that 98% of people are in favor of the European project Alongside of that another survey was taken however to ask people what did they think on the ground that the EU had contributed and here there was a bit of confusion they didn't have concrete examples if you like in their head we need local politicians and as regional politicians we need clear pathways of information from the committee of the regions in the first instance to our regional assemblies and to our local authorities with specific benefits everybody is aware in Ireland that the EU has been very good in terms of social inclusion climate action consumer rights and so on the big ticket issues because we need to regionalize the information more I think so that local people will know what has been done for their area because after all everybody is only concerned with their own agenda the European project is so important I think to ensure that we have trust democracy in the future we see all around us global strife what people want more than anything is a certainty that their livelihoods are going to continue that their peace of mind and their quality of life is going to continue and by having strong EU policies which are fed into a farm the committee of the regions and the regional assemblies and local authorities I think will help to drive that message home I did a small vox pop of a number of young people that are involved in the periphery of politics in Cork and I asked them the question I said what do you think the EU has done locally they weren't able to answer me so therein I would like to see perhaps a little leaflet or some kind of missive that will come to the regional assemblies which can be disseminated to every local authority member that they in turn can show the very good work not just by the institutions but by the background people after all they don't get mentioned very often out here but they do tremendous work and by informing all the local politicians in their towns and communities they can in turn tell the people and call out those misinformation and those untruths that are being peddled on a daily basis I have been told that we can take one additional round of questions to our panelists so I will put it this way to all of three participants we face in the political life and of course in the elections traditionally left parties and liberals but lately we have also to face with the populist mostly far right parties how we as central right party as Christian democrat party can win the elections against also populist Mr. Tchaikovsky has a recipe yes I would even submit to you that there is no clear division anymore between liberal right and left which is that visible it's more between those parties which are open minded progressive pro-European and those which are just inward looking actually producing policy based on fear and so on and so forth the most important thing is why I moved from national politics to local politics is to be as concrete as possible because that's what people actually expect if you're going to tell them about fighting climate change and you're going to talk about 2040 2050 and you're going to talk about different benchmarking systems and so on and so forth no one understands that you just have to translate that into something really concrete like for example you say okay there will be you know all the buses will be emission free and let's look for European support let's do that let's make all our cities you know emission free and let's use the European funds and let's use and know how to do it let's use the technology to do it for example smart city technology in order to fight congestion and so on and so forth so the more concrete you are the more you can translate those big policy priorities into concrete things that people can actually touch and that they can actually see three four five years and then you can say yes this is a program supported by the European Union for example like I did with preschools why not have a program like that in all the European cities think about the things that people want to really see as change invest in green spaces and so on and so forth that's what we do in our cities but maybe we could actually try to use that concrete language and try to transfer that concrete language to the language of the European Union which always talks about generalities and big priorities and so on and so forth let's be as concrete as possible please first of all I could I mention I forgot it earlier that there is a great ability to harness the women's organizations by going out to meet them because after all the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world and I think we have to interact more with women's organizations I think that people are fed up of tit for tat politics you said this and he said that I think you're right we have to give concrete examples in response to these populist arguments I think we should write the media you see letters in the media you know peddling lies I think also we need to be more brave when taking them on I think some politicians are afraid to take them on because obviously in social media you could bring a storm down on your head but I think if it's the truth we should speak it and have no fear of it and I think that everyone of us has a responsibility to try and encourage dialogue we have to hear what they're saying and it's not enough to knock them down I think we have to counter their arguments in a logical way and as you say in concrete way as well thank you yeah to add to what my colleagues already said so that really needs to be very strong on the local level and there I have a lot of good experience because in the past in our city the second largest city in Finland so our EPP group political group we have not been the largest one but for the last 20 years we have been and we are very strong much much greater with the numbers as well compared to our competitors but that means that we operate there showcasing in concrete terms for the citizens what does that this mean and we are very strongly pro-European take this European collaboration and concepts all the time strongly there and to the discussions we are very strongly investing in education and learning we just actually yesterday morning got the agreement on next year's budget with the political groups all except one except that finally under our leadership and it means as well so more investments in schools more investments in healthcare and especially the old senior citizens of course this equality between men and women so that has been very long in our let's say priority focus areas with the concrete results so it's working with the people and for the people and I think this is really the only solution we need to have operate on the all levels but it's our duty as the EPP parties so that we can really concretely show that what the European value add it is and that is really a big thing it's not all talking about generalities but with the concrete terms what we can do globally in achieving the as well the United Nations sustainable development goals so we take these global issues there as well and operate with schools with children with the kindergartens and so on thank you thank you Marco we have some questions from other participants to our panelists thank you thank you I wish you success in our understanding of our friends and see you in our village thank you you see it's not so difficult to learn creation thank you very much thank you very much we will just wait to continue with the other panel thank you our panelists we need to say as you know Congress the number of members we are happy to have the trust of Khan and our other partners have agreed on this panel and here we are waiting for the time to join and then finish and that part of our work I hope we will catch up with years for a studio visit I would also like to thank our colleague Zelya Turku who was a good host in this part IPP residents in the region and we are sure it's a studio visit and also because he helped the organization evening evening here we have a little patience until our panelists join okay then we will start immediately with the other panel we called it the future transfer of the European Union investment for the citizens in partnership with the regions and cities our respected judges for the other panel who will ask us to take their place on the watchtower are Johannes Hahn European trustee for the transfer and he will join us every minute and here with us Zikfrid Mureshan member of the European Parliament and a member of the European Union European side in the European Parliament so I hope you will take your place welcome also with us Jan Olbrich member of the European Parliament under the president of the European Union side a reporter in the European Parliament about the annual financial circle 21-27 welcome Jan here we will start with Mr. Mureshan member of the European Parliament from 2014 at the beginning of this mandate you were elected under the president of the European Union side and took responsibility for the important work group for the transfer and structural policies which are the main goals of the European Union side in view of the future long-term transfer knowing that the regional local authorities among the main users of cohesive and semi-financial programs how to create better synergy with other EU programs like what are investing in horizon Europe connecting Europe facilities good morning everyone it's nice to see you all here in this dark room thank you also for taking up the moderation of this session for the invitation and for the opportunity to talk to you this morning you are asking me about the next multi-annual financial framework 2021-2027 and about the priorities of the EPP group so firstly the most important thing which we want to deliver with regards to the EU budget for the next 7 years is to adopt it on time because the budget of the European Union is always organized in 7 year terms we are now in the framework 2014-2020 and this one started with a delay and we have to be honest ourselves the European level we have a responsibility for this the budget was adopted late in 2013 and we should avoid repeating this mistake this is why the European Parliament under the leadership of Jan Olbricht who is the rapporteur of the Parliament we have been ready to negotiate with the council to discuss with the commission since November 2018 when our position was adopted my role as vice president of the EPP group is to make sure that the EPP priorities the priorities of the EPP group are reflected in that budget and priority number 1 is to deliver it on time priority number 2 is to identify the right political areas to finance primarily in the budget because if we start talking about the figures without firstly agreeing on what the budget should be about if we start talking about the figures then the discussions will be very difficult and devise if you want to pay less I want to benefit more and then you know it becomes easily as the marketplace this is why our approach is the following firstly we should agree on what the EU should deliver in the next 7 years and if the answer is the European Union should do more in terms of security of external border protection of innovation, of research should do more to support the mobility of young people in Europe through Erasmus programs and other should continue to support farmers cohesion then if we should do more we have to be honest to the citizens and say we cannot do much more with much less and this is why a key principle fresh priorities require fresh money if the European Union is expected to do more if the EU budget is expected to finance more areas then the budget also needs to increase and this is why the position of the parliament but again Jan Orbit is in charge and he knows all the details is we want the budget to increase to 1.3% of the GDP of national member states and my last point is the following we need the right balance between old priorities and new priorities welcome welcome commissioner good morning if something has been a priority in Europe for decades it doesn't mean that it's outdated that it's old on the contrary it means that it has been a priority for decades because it's important and it continues to be important and I'm speaking about agriculture and cohesion so we have new priorities where we will increase significantly our financing but our approach is the EU budget needs to strike the right balance between the old priorities and the new priorities which means do not neglect old priorities do not neglect farmers do not neglect investments into cohesion and this is why the position of the parliament is keep the amounts for cohesion and for agriculture at the same level do not reduce them thank you here we have our third panelist I would like to welcome the trustee Johanna Suhan thank you for the permission to be in our panel so we will start with questions for trustee Hannah the European Parliament and the European Parliament in their reading demand that the new EU budget be planned for 1.3% of the national income stable authorities to keep the cohesion and agriculture policies we see that in negotiations 1.08% of the national income if such a scenario would happen that would have a negative effect on the region and cities we know that 60% of the EU budget would be spent on regional and local crops what is your real price considering the size of the future 7 year budget and when the budget could be adopted thank you well thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to explain a little bit but I think as I occasionally say there was a European invention many many ages ago but it's difficult to predict when we will adopt the MFF but we should do it as soon as possible exactly because of structural funds Jan Ulrich know it almost better than me but if we are not so to say adopt the MFF as soon as possible everything is delayed the adoption we can look into the specific programs we can endow the particular programs with the necessary amount of money we know exactly how much money is available for which purposes etc and this takes time so the reason why we have currently a delay in the absorption because nowadays the current program is at around 30% on average and this one year before the end of the program is one of the results is the late decision last time last time we had a decision on the 13th of December 2013 and the new budget came into force on the 1st of January 2014 so it shows what it means that decision that's why we have to do it second on the magnitude I have listened a few sentences of Siegfried I can only subscribe to what you have said we need a sufficient amount of money in order to serve all the different needs and interests and it's not something where the commission is saying we need it so to say out of the blue but it is based like it was done also in the parliament on a bottom up approach meaning that we have simply so to say cast our joint policy into numbers this is exactly what the budget is to cast so to say our policy, our priorities into numbers on the basis of this of course we had to anticipate the relief of the UK second biggest contributor and this has to be acknowledged also in budgetary terms but to a certain extent and this was exactly the compromise in our draft this has to be compensated by higher contributions but again what we have proposed as a commission already one and a half year ago was the result in figures the heads of states the council but also the parliament and looking into so to say the future challenges I remember seven years ago migration was not yet an issue today it's a big issue it has to be reflected into the budget the same is challenges local and regional authorities are facing not only in the area of demographic changes this is something which creates a lot of concern in particular understand for instance in Croatia and it's not by chance that the commission nominated by Croatia is dealing with the demographic change which is in almost half of the countries of the European Union an issue and these are all elements which have to be echoed in a way in the budget to address it probably and finally of European interest to create the European added value which only is achievable if we look from a European perspective on certain issues Thank you Commissioner Hahn Mr. Albrecht as the former mayor and president of Croatia and as a member of the European Parliament since 2004 and as a visitor to the annual financial circle 2021 and 2027 you are well aware of the needs of regional and local authorities when you are waiting for the approval of the annual EU budget and how it would look like Yes, first of all thank you very much for the invitation for this event which is so important but let me give some additional remarks which are important especially during the congress or EPP we need inside the EPP party like we needed inside the EPP group a serious debate a very serious debate what we expect from European Union what we expect from European Union in future how we would like to achieve it what should be done in next years in each member states because budget is only part of the problem I can give you an example I am in a very close contact here in the room also the people from the local and regional authorities in Poland because we have now facing the process of re-centralizing of power more charging on the local and regional authorities of taxes of everything local and regional authorities they will have less and less money for co-financing investment from EU when we discuss in Poland about the next MFF it's not only how much money we will have in the European budget the question is how much money will the local and regional authorities have to co-finance the European investment so I think we should look very carefully in our member states what is going on because maybe the local and regional authorities will be excluded from the process not because of EU but because of the national situation second we should look very carefully because what Zikrit said please do not forget that inside our group we have the colleagues who are against the budget inside the EPP we have to have a very serious debate because of our colleagues from Sweden, Denmark Netherlands there are against our thinking about the budget and this is inside the EPP because they want to react to the demands from the voters in their countries it's not that I would like to criticize them but we need a very serious debate inside the EPP because we have to be united because if we are not united it will be extremely difficult in coming months because we would like to support for example the commission to fight for the good budget but we have to be united it cannot be split into the national and of course what now what is going on when I expect the budget to be accepted let's be very concrete for the local and the digital authorities it's not important when the MFF will be accepted the question is when the regulation concerning cohesion policy, transport etc will be ready and when they start the operational programs this is the information so of course the sectoral regulation can be if we have budget when we will have budget my private opinion I mean relatively private as a reporter is optimistic version is that there will be the decision in March, April which will open the final elements of regulation this is very optimistic what is the average opinion among the member states including the parliament we have just had the meetings yesterday this is that it will not be before the German presidency so we mean the second half of the year second half of the year it means that everything will relate at least, what commission said at least one year maybe two because we have also the problem of implementation of the policies in the last year if it's now 30% so at the end of 2020 it will be 50 or 60 so we will have 40% to be paid and a very pessimistic view is that we will not be ready before the end of 2020 and that's why we ask the commission to think about the possible exit strategy to give the information for local authorities universities, SMEs what will happen if we don't have the budget why we cannot have budget for two reasons one is extremely important the member states cannot find the agreement among themselves this is the reality today we have to find the agreement but even if they find the agreement and the agreement will go not along the expectation from the European parliament and in this parliament they are the same political parties which are in the governments they are the same and the opposition so if the parliament doesn't accept it we will say no to the budget so everything will be postponed we would like to avoid it but we have to be very close to work very closely commission, presidency and us we would like to avoid the problem but we have to be very close what is the expectation from the local authorities what you ask me is not the information about our negotiation the local authorities they don't need it they need a very clear information what we will be able to use money for and this is the result as you said our priorities what we will be ready to pay and be sure there will be some elements which will be for sure more or less in the coming years first is climate climate will be absolutely dominating everything the question is how we will define it and the second of course is the question of security and the body protection etc this is I mean climate of course digitalization is obvious this is something just to summarize I don't expect very quickly but the local authorities cannot wait and I would just ask the members of the committee of regions please be active now with us, with the commission and with the governments because we have no time to lose it will be the common fight but for this we need unity this is the time to fight because almost everything can be changed now in coming months no thank you Mr. Obrich the second round we shall start with the commission but before I would like to invite you to greet warmly Mrs. Helen McIntyre the minister of European affairs of Ireland welcome European Parliament is an instrument for regional local politicians European side I would like to prove that EU gives visible results for its citizens regional and local affairs are key partners in the preparation, management and implementation of cohesion projects we all come to deal with more and more projects with European and national relations and not with regional and local trustee Han you know the regional and local policy you can give us some examples about how to deal with the commission how to increase cohesion and added value of EU on the field do you think that on the head of the partnership still inspires the bearer of decision in Brussels and in the national main cities following what Jan has said first of course we need the budget and then we can look into the sectoral regulations and everything based on this we can work on the programs what I can only ask you urge you but the thing is already so to say underway is to prepare everything for the time when the regulations are there and to prepare everything is to be prepared what the specific interests of regions based on the information provided by the different local authorities I think this should be also an issue cooperation between local authorities and regional authorities and this should feed into the national programs because at the end of the day as a commission we have to negotiate with the national representatives but our understanding is that the national representatives are so to say in constant contact with the regional and local authorities and may I say I remember the time when I was commissioner it's not only that everything ends up at the regional level no there should be also the inclusion of the local authorities it should be a joint effort of everybody and then we know the different so to say European priorities so to say climate change, innovation promotion of the economy that's why for instance we have proposed last time and now we have to build on this experience smart specialization for each region which means to focus on the strength of a given region based on the different so to say opportunities and possibilities of the local areas in a given region it's about a national wide transport strategy which is again the result of the different regional elements and the same is for innovation is for investment in people etc and in particular everything should ideally be related to reach our climate goals it's about an intelligent smart so to say coupling of different goals which I think is achievable but it should be understood we are working together on European goals that's why we have always pushed to have regional policy which is for all European regions of course we have to differentiate between more developed less developed and in between transition regions but in order to pursue and to so to say achieve European goals we need the participation of all the 276 regions if I'm right in mind in order to get where we want to be but in terms of concrete project it's about so to say an individual delamate approach bottom up provided by the local authorities feed into the regional concept and this again should feed into a national program respecting the European goals this would be in an ideal world the programming exercise I would like to see what is it regional local authorities who is responsible regional and local authorities in the transfer of European values and priorities in a concrete sensitive results on the field in this sense can be the user of European side in particular to act to increase visibility I was indeed the general rapporteur of the European Parliament for the EU budget of 2018. And then, with a large majority in parliament, we have identified security and jobs as the top priorities for that year. We felt that that was, at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018, following the migration and refugee crisis. We felt that was what the citizens of Europe expected then. Security in every corner of Europe. That is why we decided to raise our game in terms of border protection, in terms of better cooperation of our justice, home affairs, agencies, institutions in order to better identify people who are suspects of human trafficking, of arms trafficking, of terrorism, of drugs trafficking. So security at the external border as a key component in order to be able to travel freely and safely all over Europe, to be able to invest safely in all regions in Europe. And of course jobs, the perspective of people for prosperity within the European Union, which we believe was based on research innovations that we set in order to be able to secure prosperity in Europe. We have to be better. We have to continue improving. This is why we invested a lot in Horizon 2020 research innovation infrastructure, large infrastructure programs supporting SMEs, particularly innovative SMEs. All of this in addition to, of course, the traditional priorities of the budget cohesion and agriculture. Now two years later, of course, Jan has mentioned it very well. Priorities evolve. We evolve as individuals, Europe evolves. Priorities have also evolved, climate, digitalization, new forms of mobility are expectations of the people which we need to fulfill. But I want to be very open with you. We have to do in the next three, four years, up to the end of 2023, the following three things. We only can do them together with local elected officials firstly. We have to conclude the MFF 2014-2020, where beneficiaries are allowed to absorb EU funds until the 31st of December 2023. Commissioner Hahn has said it very well. Only about 30% of the money allocated for these seven years have already been disbursed and six out of seven years have passed. In my country, for example, where we have excellent mayors, EU funds are absorbed, but at governmental level, we had a socialist government until three weeks ago. We're lagging behind. So the first thing that we have to do is make sure that all of the money for 2014-2020 reaches the beneficiaries. We have to finish this job by 2023. The second thing that we have to do is agree on the MFF for the next seven years, as was said before, by all three of us. And it's very good that we agree without any delays. So we need to start absorbing money on the new MFF as soon as possible in 2021. And we need to do this because we have new priorities. The current MFF was decided in 2013. Many things have happened since. And this MFF had to do things which were not anticipated. It was stretched to its very limit. We had to create the Yonker investment plan. We prolonged it because it's a very good project. We also created an investment plan for Africa, a MADAD fund for Syrian refugees, a Turkey refugee facility two times financed through the EU budget. And another Africa fund. So we had to do many things in these seven years which were not anticipated in 2013 when the budget was decided and which pushed the budget to its limit. In order to be able to finance our new priorities, we need the new MFF in place. And thirdly, we need to decide the rules for the next MFF in a way in which it helps beneficiaries in a way in which it makes sense for you. Let's bureaucracy a common set of rules and provisions for all EU member states based on best practices. And you know the best practices better than we know them based on best practices, digitalization, digital archives and so on make it easy, simple and cheap for beneficiaries to access EU funds. And to conclude, and here I want to be very frank, I want to say the following. Whenever we are in a budget's negotiation, it is us, the parliament, who? Firstly needs to push the member states to finance the EU budget properly. It's always a push. They always insist on less, you know, and how bad this is. Just look at David Cameron. He was the one who in 2013 insisted on a small EU budget, you know, fueling this type of Euro skepticism. Look where the United Kingdom is now. This is a very bad thing. So we have to push member states to finance the EU budget accordingly to put their money where the statements are. Because they always say, yes, we want more security, more border security from the EU budget. But are you ready to pay more into the EU budget? Well, let's see, not a penny more and so on. Let's see if we can squeeze the lemon somewhere else. What I want to say is member states need to put their money where the statements are. If we agree that something is important for Europe, we need to finance it. Then the second thing that we have to push member states about is to start absorbing the EU money without any delay. 2014-15 there were delays. As I said in the beginning, we were partly to be blamed for it because we adopted legislation late in 2013. But in my country in Romania, out of the 10 management authorities, the institutions who make the payments, in 2017 in April, we only had accredited two out of 10. So there you see where the bigger source of delay is. And the third thing that we have to push member states for, so secondly, we have to push them to absorb money, and thirdly is at the end of the MFF to pay the bills. When the absorption capacity is high, when all projects reach cruising speed, then the needs, financial needs on the ground are big. And then we also need to pay what we have committed for because there is no worse signal than the European Union sends to beneficiaries, to the private sector, to NGOs, to mayors, or to citizens than the European Union not capable of paying its bills on time. Thank you, Siegfried. Mr. Albright. Sorry, I didn't get the machine that works, but you can just repeat it in English, please. Sorry, I didn't get the machine that works, but you can just repeat it in English, please. Yes, so, if you allow me, I would just add something, what Commissioner Hahn said, and next I will answer your question. For the local and regional authorities, it's not unimportant who is Commissioner, to be very frank. Because I remember the time when Johannes Hahn was the director of the European Union. He was the editor of the European Union, I remember the time when Johannes Hahn was the commissioner for regional policy and I know the time after. And for example, for local and regional authorities, what is important is the consequence of our decision. And it's very clear that very often in the European Commission, we can hear that distribution of money and the division of competences in the member states is up to the member states, it's not the problem of the Commission. At the same time, at the same time, the Commission is able to introduce the legislation which can influence positively or negatively the question of decentralization and the partnership of local authorities. Let me give you the example. I mean, the colleagues from the Committee of Regions, they know very well because there is a position of Committee of Regions about the thematic concentration. The thematic concentration is the idea from last two years. So it was not your time of the Commission. And this is very clear that the decision of the thematic concentration belongs to the government and not to the local and regional authorities. So we ask the Commission, why are you doing it? You say, because this is the problem of the member states. No, in the legislation you decide about decentralization. You reinforce decentralization. You have to reinforce the decentralization. So that's why when you ask me about the visibility, the question of what is visibility? We've secretly used to have the French liberal as the president of the Budget Committee. And five years he was always repeating, we have to do everything that the budget will be visible for the citizens. And I think that you, I mean the mayors and the President of Regions, you know very well that the citizens are going in the streets and they are just thinking about the construction of European budget. This is absolutely fascinating job to think about European budget. They don't care. This is not their problem. The problem is they understand European budget. No, do they understand the national budget? No. Do they understand the local budget? No, but this is not their problem. This is not the problem of the citizens to understand the budget. The problem is they understand the consequence of the budget. I mean what will, the question which will be asked by the citizens, okay, will we be safe or not? We will have the clear air or not. Are you ready to guarantee money for it? This is the question of the people they ask, okay, are you able to guarantee that it will be done? It means that you have to have financial resources either in the national budget or in European budget. If we are not able to guarantee that it will be done, so this budget is not visible. I mean for the members, for the citizens, what it really means 1.3, 1.00, etc. This is completely useless. The question is, what we are speaking all the time, we will not achieve the goals of European Union. We will not do what we promise to the people. We promise to the people that European Union will have to do it and next we will not guarantee money, so we will not do it and the people will be completely frustrated. So they will ask, what is the European Union for? So that's why when we ask the government, okay, you agree, this is the international organization, you agree of, for example, 10 challenges. You agree? Yes. You have the agreement unanimity? Yes. Do you guarantee the money? No. So please tell it to the people. Tell it to the people. Our role as EPP, as EPP, we have to be very clear, visible, and we have to tell the truth. The Congress in Zagreb is not the Congress of Europeans. The Congress in Zagreb is the Congress of EPP. We should be very clear what we want from European Union and not to make the race who is more green than the greens, which is today the problem of French. I mean the French Renaissance, they are making the race who is more green. That's the problem. The problem is clear. I mean, air, good transport, et cetera. So I think the only way to make a budget visible is to be concrete, what has been said before, and to tell the people the truth. I mean, if we don't have money, okay, let's tell the people. There will be no money for doing, and it should be clear, especially for the local authorities, because they are facing the citizens, and the people say, we will have European money or not. So I think that the only way is to be transparent and to fight for our priorities and to ask our governments, if we are in the government, which is not the case in my country, and ask our commissioners, our commissioners also, to have the EPP way of thinking and to work very closely among us. We have to work very closely. EPP people in the commission, in the council, in the parliament, in the political party together and to support each other. We are ready to support Commissioner Hahn because he will have extreme last sentence. Me as a reporter of MFF, it's like the reporter Zickford before. The natural tendency is to attack the commission. Attack the commission, you are not doing what we expect. But I know the commission there is from the EPP, so if I want to criticize the commission, I will not attack the commissioner because I will not destroy it because I want him to be strong. So this is, I think, a political issue and we have to be very capable. We are politicians, we are not technicians. Thank you. Thank you, Jan. Our last question goes to Commissioner Hahn. He can also, of course, comment. The previous said. President Ursula von der Leyen said in her political speeches that the democratic system of our union is unique by collecting directly elected representatives on the local, regional, national and European level with elected officials, the state and the government. How do you aim to translate this statement into the elections, especially the European Parliament and especially the European regional elections as two institutions with directly elected members? Well, thank you for the question because it fits to a certain extent in what they wanted to comment on Jan's remarks. But first I wanted to say I really appreciate the way how we are working together but you should not believe that they are not critical to what we are doing, but it's something different if you tell it to me in a private conversation or if you use a public forum. And this is something where we should be aware in terms of political, so to say, debate and having in mind, so to say, that we are one family trying to achieve the same. Of course, we have different roles but it's a question of, so to say, understanding and respect how to exchange and how to sort out if we have different views on something which is actually very often very natural. Here is the member of the parliament. Here is somebody from the executive side but we have to find at the end of the day, so to say, a common denominator and this is possible if it's a solid, a frank, open but clear and friendly exchange. But what I wanted to say and this sort of leads to your question, I would like to make the following proposal. I just discovered because in my country, Austria, we have something which one could say is still a project, almost I would say it's an institution and this is that we have launched a couple of years ago the idea and started to implement that at the level of each municipality where we have a local parliament, there are different names for it but there is a kind of representation and there are deputies. So each municipality should nominate one deputy to be the so-called EU deputy of this entity and in Austria we have more than 2,000 municipalities in the meantime we have more than 1,000 local EU deputies and they are sort of say in a constant contact in particular with our EU representation they receive direct information, they have the ability, they have the information and they do so and they communicate to their people not only in the local parliament but also in their constituency and this makes it possible to translate European issues sometimes very abstract into some very concrete examples, proposals and on the other hand get the feedback and my proposal is now to extend this project all over Europe. I mean we have probably 10,000 municipalities if we would have in each municipality so to say defined and so to say nominated assigned deputy who can serve as our contact point I think we could tremendously improve the level of exchange of information, of feedback in one or the other direction and can contribute to a better understanding better performance but better so to say also feedback from the local level even to the European level about what is Europe and what is the individual added value for each citizens if it is explained by his direct so to say deputies I think this would have a huge impact on the acceptance but also the understanding of the work of the European Union and please reflect about this, consider this I think it could be a very important project of the committee of the region to inject this idea and to translate it into concrete results thank you very much I think it would be best to include this in the European post-European policy and to keep the valuable experience that the country has in Austria This concludes our panel I would like to thank all the panelists the proposals were inspiring, constructive they were good and this concludes this panel I would like to take a few final remarks and then we will move on to the studio session thank you here are a few more final remarks this panel is related to the work of this panel we have also confirmed on this local dialogue that the regions of the city and the community do not replace the members of the European Union with the closest citizens who have the most faith in the citizens and where the EU politicians are the most visible the regions of the city and the community should be partners with the rest of the European Union not only in the government but also in the creation of European policies we must all strengthen the contacts with our citizens especially through the dialogue with them on the regional and local region of the EU we hope that we will soon agree on the multi-year financial framework we expect that the final version of the multi-year financial framework will respect the rules of the region and will not reduce the gap between the EU and the EU and will not worsen the prospects of financing the funding of the projects because it would suit the local and regional self-sufficiency we understand and support the proposed increase of the funds to ensure competition with the growing economic forces in the world to investigate innovation for young people to respond to new challenges such as the security of the border of migration but not on the basis of cohesiveness and unilateral positive policies these are fundamental European policies and the EU will not perform its mission without these policies this is another call for increasing the power of the countries to 1.3% of the national income thank you all for the dialogue and I invite you to join us on the bus we will travel to the bus and to the bus station and to the train station thank you thank you


So every year, is there some kind of a celebration? Well, I mean, we have our convention, Digestive Disease Week is our big thing every year. We're always at Digestive Disease Week and we just, it just really, we did a lot of promotion. We're really proud of all we've accomplished. We, you know, have a beautiful new IT&T facility that we're using to really help put on programs and educate members of the gastroenterology field. So I mean, yeah, we just, a lot of promotion, there's some celebration about 75 years. We certainly recognize it in gastrointestinal endoscopy. So yes, it was definitely a fantastic year for ASGA. So is GIE the only journal which has been used by ASGA? Actually, we just started a new journal. It launched this summer. It's called Video GIE. It's a completely video-based online open access journal. And so, you know, endoscopy is a very visual field. So we found that our readers were really loving the fact that we were including videos in GIE and it just spawned a whole new journal. So that's definitely something that there's been a lot of buzz about is our launching of our second journal. So when you say it has a lot of video content, is it mostly for the methods section or how the techniques are performed? They're actually completely video-based. Each submission is a video with a short description. So you'll be able to see a variety of things, you know, actual endoscopic practices, things like that. And you also have video abstracts? Well, we do have video abstracts in relationship to that. So what it will be is like a short abstract describing a video case. And then the case will be presented in solely video form. OK. Yeah, because in today's keynote as well, we heard that videos or new ways of disseminating information is something that we can expect, especially with the whole digital transformation. Yeah, I definitely think that is. I think that we are seeing more and more readers want to look something up online and see, you know, an image or a video as opposed to maybe picking up a physical copy of the journal and just sitting there and reading it, especially. We noticed that, especially with a lot of our younger members, this, you know, was a really popular medium, which is also why we've gotten into more things like social media and podcasts. We're really trying to keep up with what what our readers are interested in and the trends in the world of publishing.