Det Europæiske Regionsudvalg

The Communication on 8^th Report presents the main changes in territorial disparities over the past decade and how policies have affected these disparities. It highlights the potential of the green and digital transitions as new drivers of EU growth, but argues that without appropriate policy action new economic, social and territorial disparities may appear. It also launches a reflection on how cohesion policy should evolve to respond to these challenges and in particular how to ensure that place-based, multilevel and partnership led approaches continue to improve cohesion, while building on synergies and mainstreaming cohesion objectives into other policies and instruments.

EESC will present its views on this report stressing the important role that civil society plays and that local policies need local strategies, drawn up with local partners.

The EESC laments the severity of the money laundering phenomenon in the EU. Current European legislation is largely inadequate in the face of coordination failures and national divergences, and therefore strongly supports the Anti Money Laundering legislative package, in particular the creation and design of the new European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) with direct supervisory powers.

The EESC strongly believes in the importance of the next Semester cycle as a key instrument for implementing the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

However, it is still concerned about the lack of clarity in most Member States as regards their National Recovery and Resilience Plan governance systems and the distribution of responsibilities for their implementation.

The EESC would also draw attention to the need to measure progress in implementation, for which good monitoring indicators are needed; in this connection it welcomes the "Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard" initiative.

Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the need for a strong industrial policy to avoid dependence on other economic zones for many products and services.

The EESC wants to see real action in this respect by Member States, in terms of investment in education, infrastructure and industrial policy to raise employment and boost European industry.

The forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU (Germany), aims to further discuss and analyze the policy objective 1 under the Common Provisions Regulation for cohesion policy that refers to '' a smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation''. In this context, the Presidency has asked the EESC to provide an opinion on how the structural measures and cohesion policy programmes can help in this process. The Presidency plans to present the key findings of this discussion in a High-level conference that will take place on 29^th of September where also the opinion of EESC will be discussed. 

The forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU (Germany), aims to conclude together with the other EU Member States the new Territorial Agenda of the European Union (TAEU) together with the revision of the urban development policy based on the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities and also to update the steps for further developing of the Urban Agenda for the EU. In this context, the Presidency has asked from EESC to provide an opinion on both territorial and urban matters and thus to incorporate the points of view of the diverse interests the EESC represents in the discussions. The Presidency plans to adopt the renewed Territorial and Urban Agenda at the informal ministerial meeting for urban and territorial development on 30 November and 1 December 2020 in Leipzig.