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​Greater say for local governments and social partners

The Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe agreed to allocate more seats in the Conference Plenary to local elected representatives, as well as to social partners. 

The Board amended the rules of procedure by adding to the plenary six elected representatives from local and six from regional authorities. They also agreed to increase the number of representatives from the social partners by four, to a total of 12. 

The Conference combines online and offline, local, regional, national and Europe-wide events, organised by civil society organisations and citizens, the European institutions, and national, regional and local authorities. These will all feed into the Plenary and the final report.

Next steps

In September, the first sessions of the European Citizens Panels will take place.

For more information: multilingual digital platform

THOMAS Carol

Senior Adviser, Governance, Gender Equality, Local Democracy

Migration and inclusion: a snapshot of our upcoming activities

Over the past few months, the CEMR Task Force on Migration and Integration has been re-activated with a twofold mission. First, to put cities and regions at the heart of the new EU policies dealing with migration. Second, to raise awareness and share expertise on migrant integration through initiatives such as the EU Inclusion Partnership and IncluCities.

Eight member associations are currently part of the Task Force and more have expressed interest and willingness to join the group after the summer break. This shows our members’ with migration and integration topics, especially in regions and cities with significant inflows of newcomers and large immigrant background populations. All member associatiosn can take part in the two pillars’ activities on an ad hoc basis.

Preparing advocacy on the EU’s New Migration Pact

European policy in these areas is being defined in two key documents. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum issued by the European Commission in September 2020 deals with migration flows, relocation and border screening, while the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion (2021-2027) outlines future legislative and policy actions to be taken. Negotiations on these dossiers has been prolonged and difficult since the 2015 migration crisis.

Compared to that of 2016, , the current Action Plan covers not only third-country nationals, but also migrants and EU citizens with a migration background. CEMR contributed to the EU’s consultation on the Plan and indeed the Commission’s final version puts considerable emphasis on local needs, namely: long-term integration of migrants, knowledge exchange and cooperation between cities, increasing local governments’ capacities and stronger coordination between levels of government.

CEMR met with the EU vice-president responsible for migration, Margaritis Schinas, in February. The Greek commissioner emphasised the crucial role that local governments play on migration and integration. In the wake of this meeting, the Task Force decided to work on a a new resolution responding to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, presenting local governments’ views and needs on these issues

Sharing knowledge through the Inclusion Partnership of the EU Urban Agenda

On a parallel track, the Task Force will work on awareness raising and sharing knowledge and best practices between local and regional governments on migration issues. This goes to the heart of the practical work of integratingnewcomers in our towns and regions.

CEMR renewed its participation to the Inclusion Partnership of the Urban Agenda – in which cities can collaborate and provide their input to EU policymakers. We are particularly interested in the EU actions on integration of LBGTQ+ migrants, the creation of a database for evidence-based integration policymaking and financial instruments for inclusion aiming to build capacities for cities.

The Task Force will exploit synergies between CEMR’s migration on advocacy and knowledge sharing, as well as with the IncluCities project. IncluCities in particular will share examples of good practices and provide input into CEMR’s recommendations on migrant integration, which will also generate visibility for project.

BORDELOT Federica

Director – Policy & Impact

The EU promises more transparent and collaborative lawmaking: what does it mean for local and regional governments?

Today about 60% of a mayor’s political agenda is influenced by European legislation. It is therefore crucial to ensure that EU rules do not add unnecessary administrative burdens to local governments and can be effectively implemented without additional costs.

With its agenda on Better Regulation, the EU executive aims to make progress in future law-making by focussing on more transparent and evidenced-based policy processes for improved  outcomes. How? For instance, by enhancing impact assessments and introducing a “rural proofing” mechanism in EU legislation to analyse any potential impact on rural jobs, growth and sustainable development. 

To ensure the EU’s recovery, we need improved European lawmaking able to respond to tomorrow’s challenges. Last April, the European Commission made an important step forward in this direction with the adoption of a recent Communication on Better Regulation. Here are some of the issues at stake for local governments.

Better involvement of local governments and other stakeholders

The Commission created the Fit4Future platform in 2020 to receive input on how to simplify EU laws and reduce administrative costs. The platform brings together the expertise of those in charge of implementing EU legislation (public administration, social partners, businesses, technical experts, consumers and NGOs) to share their ideas on how to achieve this.

Cities and regions have a prominent role to play on the platform, notably as represented through the Committee of the Regions. The Commission promises to better distinguish the contributions of different types of stakeholders (such as local governments), to swiftly respond to feedback to consultations and to “more accurately reflect the input of local, regional and national authorities.”

More transparency on the evidence behind EU law-making

The Commission proposes the creation of a common evidence register: the Joint Legislative Portal, which would provide easy access to all the evidence underpinning every EU initiative. This new tool would allow more effective communication between policymakers at EU and national level, as well as fostering evidence-based policies. The creation of this Portal responds to previous calls by CEMR for more transparency in legislative processes to enable local and regional governments to follow more easily the preparation and amending of draft legislation.

The SDGs will guide EU policy-making

The Commission is intensifying its efforts to anticipate future challenges that Europe will face and how policymaking needs to respond to these challenges. As a result, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will become the new reference framework for assessing ‘ex-ante’ the sustainability of all legislative proposals. The Commission will identify the relevant SDGs linked to each of its proposals and examine how the initiative will support the achievement of the SDG(s) concerned. 

This is great news for local and regional governments across Europe, as many of them have already been using the SDGs for some time now as a way to support more joined-up policymaking, in pursuit of carbon neutral economies.

With this Communication, the Commission aims to take into account the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the COVID-19 recovery and the need to legislate as efficiently as possible, with an eye to the future. And the best way to do it is by ensuring that all key stakeholders “work together on high-quality EU policymaking that will translate into a stronger, more resilient Europe“, according to Maroš Šefčovič, EU Commission Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.

Let’s hope this collaborative vision becomes a reality for Europe’s local governments and citizens!

THOMAS Carol

Senior Adviser, Governance, Gender Equality, Local Democracy