In the room of the Charlemagne building, which belongs to the European Commission, in Brussels, half a dozen Portuguese mayors are seated, divided among hundreds of representatives of European municipalities and regions. But there is another Portuguese in the room: the president of the body gathered there, the European Committee of the Regions, is the former president of the regional government of the Azores Vasco Cordeiro. He is the one who gives the floor, during the two days that the plenary session of the Commission lasts (this Wednesday and Thursday), to the members who are claiming their regions and asking that the European Commission be pressured and sensitized on the various issues, many of which directly touch the Portuguese case.
The agenda showed precisely that: on the one hand, because it was going to talk about the multi-year financial allocations that countries receive and specifically the money associated with cohesion policies —which seriously worries a Portuguese MEP and Vasco Cordeiro himself— ; on the other hand, because the funds were on the agenda to help the European regions in cases of natural disasters, from fires to droughts, all cases that apply to Portugal, and that made the president of the Social Democratic mayors, Hélder Sousa Silva (Mayor of Mafra), they send out a “cry for warning” and ask that the money really goes into the hands of the municipalities and that it does not get stuck in the central government.
In the midst of all the requests, the European Committee of the Regions is a consultative body: it issues opinions on matters that affect the European regions and, as Hélder Sousa Silva summarized, makes recommendations to the European Commission, just as Parliament can make them. to the government. “The committee transmits the common understanding of the regions and cities of Europe”, summarized this Thursday, in a joint interview with the Observer and Lusa, Vasco Cordeiro, guaranteeing to have “very fluid contact” with the Portuguese delegation present there (in total there are twelve Portuguese mayors).
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Source: Observadora
