President Markkula reiterates the call for an EU Urban Agenda to the Mayors of EU capitals
The President of European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Markku Markkula, participated on Tuesday in EU Capital Cities Mayors' Meeting in Vienna with Corina Crețu i, EU Commissioner for Regional and Urban Policy. During the day Markkula also held bilateral meetings with Harald Himmer, Vice-president of the Austrian Bundesrat, and Sebastian Kurz, Federal Minister for Foreign and European Affairs.
Addressing to the mayors of the EU Capital Cities and Commissioner Corina Crețu, President Markku Markkula reiterated the call of CoR for an integrated EU Urban Agenda focusing on thematic fields such as urban poverty, integration of migrants, smart cities and urban innovation. "A future EU Urban Agenda should ultimately lead to a genuine cross-cutting anchoring of the urban dimension in the EU decision-making process - in other words, urban mainstreaming - and not to a specific EU strategy or programme", Markkula said. The meeting was hosted by Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna, and President Markkula was accompanied by CoR member Herwig van Staa (AT/EPP), President of the Tyrol regional parliament.
President Markkula later met with Harald Himmer, Vice-president of the Austrian Bundesrat, to discuss the involvement of local and regional authorities in the European Semester procedure, and with Sebastian Kurz, Federal Minister for Foreign and European Affairs. President Markkula presented the activities of CoR in the field of European Neighbourhood Policy and EU enlargement in Western Balkans to the Federal Minister, who highlighted the crucial role of regions and cities in shaping the relationship with Austria's neighbours inside and outside the EU.
"Within the framework of the macro-regional strategies, local and regional cooperation prove essential when it comes to transforming a shared geography such as the Danube basin or the Alps into shared challenges and common values. Local and regional authorities also take a central part in the enlargement process as two thirds of the EU legislation is implemented on local and regional level. Building on its experience as a federal state, Austria assists candidate countries in preparing for EU membership through biannual programmes aiming at transferring know-how on local and regional level", Kurz said.
In the afternoon President Markkula attended the exhibition "Smart City Vienna", presenting major initiatives of smart specialisation implemented by the Austrian capital. He also encouraged the Austrian municipalities to step up their work on communicating about the EU on the ground, in view of the Europe Day on May 9.
Contact:
Lauri Ouvinen
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