The 162nd plenary of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) represented the penultimate session of the mandate and coincided with the 22nd European Week of Regions and Cities in October.
The plenary featured a comprehensive agenda of 11 opinions and six debates by representatives across the EU member countries. Irish Delegation member Cllr Kieran McCarthy highlighted the need for Europe to support its cities and regions, noting that this would lead to “a strong trust-filled partnership in multi-level governance”.
The event also served to mark the debate on 20 years after the 2004 EU enlargement, with a look-back at the challenges faced by the ten countries who joined in 2004, highlighting lessons to be learned for the nine candidate countries.
The debate underlined the importance of developing a cohesion policy to ensure that any future growth of the EU does not create any financial disruption. This was followed by a presentation of the ‘Mid-term Review of the Post-Covid European Recovery Plan’ and ‘A Just Transition for all EU Regions’, which were both adopted by members.
Giving his opinion on the promotion of roots tourism, Cllr McCarthy outlined the impact of ‘The Gathering’, noting that the event attracted over 250,000 incremental tourists who would not have travelled to Ireland in 2013 if ‘The Gathering’ had not taken place.
“Conservative estimates suggest it contributed at least €170 million to the Irish economy. Ireland has built on the success of this roots tourism initiative to develop the Global Irish Festival Series. The series is more targeted, seeking to reconnect those with roots to Ireland’s west back home over the course of 2024,” he added.
