We must shape a new model of European democracy that could better respond to the real challenges, the real issues and the concrete solutions that the citizens need, said European Committee of Regions (CoR) Chairman Apostolos Tzitzikostas in an interview with LETA, speaking about the CoR policy priorities for the time period until 2025, including making Europe closer to its residents and strengthening democracy on all levels of government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNiXSxQ3Zvc

One of the CoR policy priorities for 2025 is to bring Europe closer to its residents and to strengthen European democracy on all levels of government. Do you think that democracy will be strengthened in the course of administrative territorial reform when larger municipalities will be formed?

Decisions concerning regional local structures and governments fall within the competence of the member state, as you know, so our Committee fully respects this national competence. In general, creating larger municipalities through amalgamation of smaller ones has improved local democracy in several countries, however, results were milder in other member states. So, I am aware that Latvia will reduce the number of municipalities for the next municipal elections, and I certainly hope that the reform will be successful in all respected, including in strengthening democracy and participation. However, there is no single magic tool to improve democratic participation and to make sure that citizens feel represented by the national, local or regional authorities.

We believe that democracy has to be strengthened by improving institutional relations between all different levels of government, whatever the size, the structure, always respecting EU members, and in turn, administrative organization of every EU member state.

The Conference on the Future of Europe will be crucial towards achieving this goal. Our house of European democracy has solid foundation which are the regional and local authorities, solid walls - the member states, and a protective roof - the European Union. We want to strengthen this house, and it is necessary to start from its foundation. We must reflect at the EU level the role of played by the local governments. We must shape, in other words, a new model of European democracy that could better respond to the real challenges, the real issues and the concrete solutions that the citizens need.

The policy priorities also promise that the Committee will identify the solutions to ensure that the EU provides sufficient support to local authorities and responding to future emergencies. What could this support be and how is to planned to be distributed?

Europe’s reaction to the pandemic has been very positive, despite of course of some mistakes at the very beginning. To face the health and socio-economic crisis, the Union has been able to develop and launch the largest investment and support plan for member states in its entire history.

The next European Union budget and the recovery plan will make available EUR 1,800 billion that must be invested in all EU regions to be able to relaunch our economy, maintain jobs, support businesses and strengthen the health systems that are giving the big flight today.

So, the task of our Committee is to make sure that both cohesion policy and recovery plans are successfully implemented on the ground, and to achieve this goal, make no mistake, we must improve coordination between all levels of government, as I said earlier, EU, national, regional, local.

We must use the pandemic as an opportunity to help regional, local authorities to face the societal challenges that we are facing, increasing resilience, for example. To face health crisis, preparedness is a priority, but it is also important to manage, at the same time, climate, demographic digital challenges.

We have to make sure that the EU resources are used to address people’s needs and increase local authorities’ preparedness to respond appropriately for future emergencies. So, this covers the procurement of medical equipment as well as measures to save jobs, create employment opportunities, and, of course, support businesses.

Our Committee is at work to represent the needs of the one million locally elected politicians all across Europe, and to make sure that these resources will support recovery that leaves no region and no people behind. So, all levels of governments - EU, national, regional, local - are called today upon to join forces. If we want to turn this EUR 1.8 trillion investment into reality, we need a fair, a digital and a greener government, and this will come through citizen regions, and this is what our citizens expect, and what we all need to achieve to turn the challenges into opportunities.

What will be the European strategy for improvement of situation of local and regional media, which is particularly relevant today, given the amount of misinformation?

You know, regional and local media are the backbone of the freedom of expression, and they are crucial in the fight against misinformation. As regional government I know very well, as a governor directly elected by the people I know very well, how important in the role of regional and local media is to provide useful information based on local matters.

Safe and free media environment is crucial to defend democracy. This is clear. And this is why the European Union supports media freedom and comes up with EU-funded projects that amount up to EUR 78 million under the current budget. For the first time there is also a dedicated envelope for media pluralism, journalism and media literacy, which is also targeted at regional and local ones.

So, the aim is to promote collaborative journalism and to monitor violations of media freedom in order to support the press under threat. Our Committee is a strong supporter of regional and local media, and we have made over the years many partnerships to make sure that they help us communicating Europe directly to the citizens of regions, and citizen villages, all across Europe. So, regional and local media also have a crucial role to play, fighting misinformation, and they are key partners for the task forces created on the EU level to tackle this challenge, including the one on Russia’s misinformation campaigns.

More than 11,000 pro-Kremlin disinformation cases have been exposed in six years on the EU information portals, 7 percent of these are fake news, concerning Covid-19 just in the past year. So, the problem is real, and we need real action. Regional and local media are trusted and very close to the people - right where they live, and therefore they help debunking misinformation and propaganda

In relation to financing for recovery. How does Latvian look like in comparison to other EU countries? Do our wishes correspond the set goals? Is it not the case that we are failing to absorb the allocated funds?

Well, Latvia is one of the nearly 20 EU countries, which have already submitted to the Commission the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Latvia had the possibility to ask up to EUR 2 billion in grants un the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The government decided to request a little bit less - EUR 1.8 billion, and no loans, but the EU Commission’s approval will take up to three months, allowing disbursement of the 13 percent pre-financing. So, all other transfers will be based on satisfactory fulfilment of the milestones and targets, however, our communication should be clear on this and pay attention not to confuse different funds.

The RRF is a temporary measure, aided to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, whereas the Cohesion policy represents a third of the EU budget and is structural funds jointly managed by the EU Commission and the EU countries and regions.

Under the Cohesion policy, for example, Latvia will receive EUR 4.6 billion in the upcoming programming period - 2021-2027. So, we must absolutely avoid any kind of competition or overlap between structural funds and the RRF that could undermine the impact of both. This is why it is key that regional and local authorities are fully involved in the implementation of the EU recovery plans.

In what direction would it be better to use these funds to allow the country to gain the economic momentum more quickly after the Covid-19 crisis.

Every national recovery plan must allocate the minimum of 37 percent of expenditure for climate investments and the minimum of 20 percent for the digital transition, as you know. This is exactly the way you should follow. Now it is up to the EU Commission to assess the Latvian plan, of course. However, I will be very frank with you, without regions and cities, the shaping of implementation of national recovery plans have really limited chances to succeed.

The lack of involvement has also a strong impact on coordination between Cohesion policy and the Resilience and Recovery Fund, undermining both. So, unfortunately, there is no legal obligation for the member states to set up a structure consultation process with the regions, but we have asked for this implication of the regions and cities in the very early launch of the recovery plan.

Our Committee is at work nowadays to create a true partnership among the EU, national, regional and local actors because we simply realize that this is the only way that we, the European Union, will be able to deliver the recovery our citizens need so much.

Regarding a common strategy, facilitating vaccination in the EU and the fight against misinformation, could there be any pressure to facilitate vaccination in especially difficult regions as in Latvia with Latgale, where the fight against Russian propaganda and the glorification of Sputnik V is difficult to overcome.

Well, to boost, first of all, the vaccination process, people must be informed, facilitated and motivated. We must accompany citizens so that they perceive their participation in the vaccination campaign as an added value for them, as individuals, and, of course, for their community as a whole. Forms of pressure to impose vaccination could be a boomerang falling backside. This is also one of the rationales behind the choice of the EU member states not to make Covid vaccination compulsory.

Our Committee is fully involved in the EU information campaign on vaccines, and we contribute to fair and transparent information through our Covid-19 information exchange platforms. We are also supporting it as an institution and through our members who are regional and local readers. In order to reach as many communities as possible all across Europe.

This strategy is providing effective and is proving that it is being effective all this time in the majority of the EU regions. The readiness to get vaccinated is steadily increasing. As we can expect, it would be enough to get to the 70 percent target in most areas. So, the EU Green Pass that has been agreed on, will give a boost to vaccination in very many regions as it allows now to travel freely across Europe during the summer period.

How is the low activity of local governments in centralized decision-making regarding restrictions of Covid-19 in Latvia being assessed in general?

Decision making regarding Covid-19 restrictions is highly dependent on institutional structure of every EU member state. In countries where health is a regional competency, crucial decisions were taken on a regional level. Where this was a case, the possibility for regions to decide upon Covid-19 restrictions helped better adapting to the situation on the ground. So, regional and local leaders are the best place to take such decisions, according to our opinion, and according to the incidence, infection rate, hospital capacity in their own territory.

The CoR has been calling to enable regions to monitor the receipt and distribution of the vaccines as improving transparency of the coordination as a tool to help identifying the gaps. Countries monitoring the data and publishing statistics - those on the local level, in general, are able to respond quicker, more effectively to gaps among different areas. So, this is why our Committee has asked the European Commission to develop a regional vaccine scoreboard that would work in parlour with the national scoreboards and allow a more in-depth analysis of the situation that we have on the ground.

From your point of view, how to motivate people to get vaccinated?

Only leading by example is the way that we can convince our fellow citizens to get vaccinated. I believe that as time goes by, and as more vaccines will be available for the European citizens, there is going to be an increase in the interest in vaccination.

And I am optimistic that by the end of this summer, and at the beginning of the fall, we will definitely start reaching the point where the strict measures that were put upon our economies and our society will not be needed any more. But we all need to trust each other, trust scientists and scientific community, and follow the data of the vaccination program so far, and just make this move. That is the only move that will take us out of this difficult situation.