Mr. Apostolos Tzitzikostas:

I will add some ideas about the future of Europe. Last month, the Conference on the Future of Europe ended. It was an interesting discussion in which Deputy Richmond and other Irish Members were active. However, a significant question has arisen since the end of the conference, and that is, what now? For a year plus some months, citizens, organisations, societies and teams of people across Europe gave us their ideas and voiced their concerns. After all of that, if Europe ends the discussion at this point and does nothing, it will be a disaster. It is clear, not only to those of us who participated in the conference but to all citizens of Europe, that Europe's last chance might be now. Now that the conference has concluded, we must realise that we have no more time to lose. Europe must change now. This is the only way to stop the anti-European sentiment that we are seeing across Europe, for example, Brexit, the French presidential election and yesterday's parliamentary elections in France. We see anti-European voices rising in most of the 27 member states. Why is this the case? It is simply because citizens – the people – feel left out of the process that is happening in Strasbourg and Brussels. We need to build a more open, more democratic and more transparent Europe and bring our citizens on board.

How do we do this? It is not possible for more than 400 million citizens to be involved in a process. That is why we are here. We represent 240 regions, 90,000 municipalities and 1.2 million elected politicians at regional and local levels in Europe. We can be the actors who help to bring Europe closer to the citizens and the citizens closer to Europe. Let them understand, and give them the feeling that they are part of, the decision-making process.

We made specific amendments to the final conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which were included in the final draft. They deal with the need to change and upgrade the strength and role of the European Committee of the Regions, which not only includes regions, but also cities. It is not a committee, but an assembly. We are the only chamber outside the European Parliament that is directly elected by the citizens. We are divided into political groups, have 329 members and function just as a parliament. However, we do not have decisive powers. We can only advise the European Parliament. We are asking for a more decisive role, especially when it comes to issues that have territorial aspects. In this way, not only will citizens feel more involved, but cities and regions will be able to tell Europe the best way to provide solutions to real problems. Regions and cities have the most proximity to the lives of citizens. As such, we have a deep knowledge of what the real issues and problems are and what the solutions to them should be.

We support the idea of a convention in Europe that will open some of the treaties and see what can be changed in order to make our Europe more democratic, more open and better functioning. In this new era, the European Committee of the Regions and, therefore, the cities and regions of Europe want their role to be understood as one that can not only help to bring Europe closer to the citizens in the regions and cities, but can also make citizens believe and trust in this European vision again.