Draft declaration of the Cohesion Alliance for a cohesive, sustainable & resilient Europe ー Thoughts & Comments
APOSTOLOS KRITIKOS
(answering the call of the #CohesionAlliance partner organisations for a public consultation on the new Cohesion Alliance declaration published on May 9th, 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how important and necessary, at the same time, it is to strive for unity and cohesion across the member states of the European Union, if not the world. It also made clear that, in times of crises, lack of strategic planning, policies, processes and infrastructure can be really dangerous and may take a toll on the lives of people.
Crises, in the scale of the one we are facing right now, are inarguably difficult to predict and, thus, we are left with no option but doing the best we can to deal with the situation at hand. It is necessary, however, to create mechanisms that will learn not only from the current one, but future crises as well and help us adapt.
In this document you will find a set of personal thoughts and comments for the new draft of the Cohesion Alliance Declaration after carefully reading both the current and the proposed draft of the new version . The document is structured as follows: In Section 2 thoughts and comments are being analyzed. In Section 3 we sum up our thoughts, as a conclusion. In Section 4 there are information about the license of this document, allowing everyone to reuse and remix it per the terms of an open Creative Common license. Finally, in Section 5 we present the references used in this document.
DISCLAIMER: Opinions are my own and do not reflect neither the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where I have the honor to serve as a researcher, nor my company, Social Mind.
The full document is available here.
Show your support, sign the declaration.
Economic, social and territorial cohesion is at the heart of the European project. And cohesion policy represents a huge investment, involving all EU regions, together with thousands of stakeholders and beneficiaries, to deliver a shared growth strategy.
This is a policy which has worked in the past, including through the crisis from which the EU is now emerging.
This is a policy which delivers today, in tackling challenges ranging from migration to climate change.
The Alliance has been created through cooperation between the leading territorial associations and the European Committee of the Regions, where like-minded regional and local politicians from across Europe joined forces in favour of a strong cohesion policy in the future. As the politicians elected closest to the people, we want cohesion to be even stronger, more effective and more visible in the future. Together we want to show the crucial role of EU Cohesion Policy and ensure that the next EU budget provide adequate resources to make it stronger, more effective and visible. All beneficiaries and supporters, all those who share the core values of this policy, from national governments to rural communities, from regional and local authorities to SMEs associations, NGOs, schools, universities, cultural organizations, are welcome to join the Alliance by signing up this Declaration.
Currently worth one third of the EU budget, the EU's cohesion policy reduces regional disparities, creates jobs, opens new business opportunities and addresses major global issues such as climate change and migration.
The #CohesionAlliance is a coalition of those who believe that EU cohesion policy must continue to be a pillar of the EU's future. The Alliance was created through cooperation between the leading European associations of cities and regions and the European Committee of the Regions. It demands that the EU budget after 2020 makes cohesion policy stronger, more effective, visible and available for every region in the European Union.
From national, regional and local governments to SMEs, NGOs, schools, universities, cultural organisations, anyone who believes in EU cohesion policy is welcome to join the #CohesionAlliance.
For more information visit the official website of Cohesion Alliance.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.