More involvement of cities in the drafting and implementation of EU recovery plans: this is the request made by European mayors to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first half of 2021.
“Time is running out,” said Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence, referring to the deadline to implement the plans. National proposals how to use the €750 billion EU Recovery Fund, ‘Next Generation EU’, have to be submitted until the end of April.
Nardella, also president of Eurocities, attended the online meeting with Costa on Tuesday together with the mayors of Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon, Milan, Paris, Vienna, and Warsaw, among others.
“We want to ensure that cities are truly involved”
“70% of cities do not feel sufficiently involved in the drafting of the plans,” Nardella cited a survey by Eurocities. “I believe that there is room for improvement and we want, as Eurocities, to continue working with the European institutions and the Council to ensure that cities are truly involved.”
Costa signalled support. “Prime Minister Costa assured me that he will define with Eurocities the actions to be taken to implement the recovery plan,” Nardella said. “This is a very important step forward for the direct involvement of citizens in the Next Generation projects.”
Eurocities advocates for better involvement of cities in the creation of the national recovery plans.
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Photo © City of Florence
