Mr. Apostolos Tzitzikostas:

Mr. Murphy is right on his assessment of the lack of knowledge of institutions, generally speaking, and not only of ours. If we broaden it out a little, things are not getting any better if we think about it. Does the Deputy think the average European citizen knows his or her Commissioner, and there is only one Commissioner for each member state? I doubt it. Does he think the average citizen knows his or her country's Members of the European Parliament? I doubt it. Very few do. Some will know their members of national parliaments if they are vocal. However, does the Deputy know who they certainly do know? They know their mayors. They know the presidents of regions. They deal with them every day. The regional local governments in most European member states engage not only in words but in actions. We implement many public works today using European funding. We transform anonymous European funds to life-changing public works for the citizens in their citizen regions. This is exactly why I said I believe citizen regions can play this role - because of our proximity to the citizens and their issues and the fact we are using all this European funding, especially Cohesion Funds, to build schools, hospitals and roads, to support SMEs and people in difficulty, to create environmental works and to carry out transport, culture, education and tourism projects. We are able to show the average citizen what Europe is all about and how it influences his or her everyday life, and that the notion Europe is something distant that does not affect us is wrong.