News from the COVID-19 exchange platform
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to expand globally. Governments at all levels, and in particular local and regional authorities, are being called upon to provide emergency services, communicate on how to contain the spread of disease, coordinate efforts, and mitigate as far as possible the impact on economies.
Regional and local leaders are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic. They urgently need better coordination among all levels of governance; better provision of essential equipment; quick and easy-to-use financial support to address the immediate needs and pragmatic solutions to adapt to the local and regional requirements.
The CoR is the interface and reference point between the European Union and its local and regional governments. In the framework of the current crisis, the CoR Conference of President endorsed a plan to assist, inform, engage and represent regions and cities across Europe by:
- fostering EU support to local and regional authorities in the health sector, via the call for an EU Health Emergency Mechanism;
- becoming a platform to exchange, cooperate and facilitate mutual support between cities and regions across Europe;
- providing through CoR mechanisms concrete feedback from the local and regional angle on how to address the health, emergency response, social and economic aspects of the pandemic and their impact on people and their local communities;
- providing regular and practical information to local and regional authorities about EU measures to address the crisis;
- facilitating a reality check on the ground of the EU’s measures to fight the pandemic; gather evidence to improve EU policies based on the experiences of the local and regional level (policy health check).
Read more on the Action Plan here
