European Commission Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto today addressed the European Committee of the Regions Plenary on the occasion of its inaugural session for the new mandate 2025-2030.

"The reformed cohesion policy should have European regions at its core right from the first phase of discussions and programming", said ECR Group President Marco Marsilio during his speech in the Brussels hemicycle underlining how the future cohesion policy should be aligned with the EU's key priorities such as competitiveness and resilience, in order to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion.

"The future cohesion policy should include a strong just transition component supporting those regions facing the transformation of the most strategic and energy-intensive industries, such as the automotive and component supply industries that are already undergoing a serious crisis", Mr Marsilio added.

The work and commitment of Vice-President Fitto has been "commendable" and is "an excellent start to his mandate", stated President Marsilio referring to Vice-President Fitto's dedication to engaging with local and regional authorities and embarking on dialogue with several EU Member States already in the first few weeks of his mandate.