European Summit of Regions and Cities will start on 18 March in Mons

​President of the European Committee of the Regions, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, and Wallonia Region Minister-President, Elio Di Rupo, together with local leaders from across the European Union and the world, will discuss priorities with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and other EU, national and international top representatives. 

The Summit will bring thousands of regional governors, mayors, and local councillors together with national ministers and with representatives of national governments, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and civil society to address some of the pressing challenges that local communities in the EU will face over the next years.

In Mons, European Capital of Culture 2015 in the Walloon region of Belgium, the EU's regions and cities will set out their own vision for the future of Europe in a declaration that will inform public debate in the run-up to European Parliament elections on 6-9 June and help to shape the EU's strategic agenda and legislative priorities for the years to come, which will be handed over to the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as Belgium currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

Also at the Summit, the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine will adopt recommendations to promote a decentralised approach to the reconstruction of Ukraine, presenting them to the German and Ukrainian governments, hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in June 2024.  Oleksandr Kubrakov, deputy prime minister responsible for Ukraine's restoration, will speak, as will the German government's special envoy for Ukraine's reconstruction, Georg Milbradt.

The Summit, which comes 11 weeks before European elections, will be addressed by the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament or their lead candidates in a dedicated session on the European elections. 

The Summit will be the occasion to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the European Committee of the Regions, established by the Treaty of Maastricht and launched in March 1994. It will also be the occasion to showcase Wallonia's rich diversity and important achievements, including thanks to cohesion policy.

All plenary and panel sessions will be webstreamed live. 

Other high-level participants: European Commissioners Margaritis Schinas, Elisa Ferreira, Věra Jourová, Nicolas Schmit and Dubravka Šuica, national ministers from Belgium, Latvia, France, Spain and Ukraine, and representatives of sub-national governments from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Gambia and Mauritania will participate in a range of panels focused on sustainability, just transition, regional development, gender equality, and local democracy.

Panels: 

• European Parliament elections
• youth participation
• gender equality
• integration
• resilience
• Ukraine
• Green Deal 
• cohesion policy
• digital innovation
• public services. 

Award: A ceremony for the winner of the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award 2023 will be held, honouring citizens and elected representatives who live to make democracy work at the local level.

More information

Programme: A detailed programme and full information can be found on the summit website.

Audiovisual material: For support and information, please contact audiovisualCoR@cor.europa.eu. Photos will also be available on the CoR's Flickr page. 

Contact:

E-mail: PresseCdR@cor.europa.eu