Brussels, 22 June 2022
The European Commission has today launched the ‘Building Europe with Local Councillors (BELC)’ project, which aims to equip local councillors and authorities across the EU with the tools they need to communicate about the EU to people in their local constituency or area. This project will set up a network across the EU, providing local authorities with access to up-to-date material about EU policy and rules that might affect their constituency, targeted webinars about key issues, as well as open the possibility to visit the EU institutions.
As of today, local councillors and authorities can register to take part in this project. It is a direct response to one of the proposals from the Conference on the Future of Europe which called for “a system of local EU Councillors, as a way to reduce the distance between the EU institutions and European citizens”.
This is a timely announcement given that on Friday 17 June, the Commission adopted a Communication setting out how it intends to follow up on the 49 proposals made by the Conference.
Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, who will meet later today Mr Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President of the Committee of the Regions, to mark the launching of this project, said:
As a former mayor myself, I understand perfectly well the importance of local government for our citizens. Giving local authorities the tools they need to communicate about the EU will help our citizens learn more about the EU – and therefore feel part of the European project. I encourage as many local councillors as possible to register for this excellent initiative.
The project is implemented in close cooperation with the Committee of the Regions and its ‘EU Network of Regional and Local Councillors’. Communicating about the EU is a shared responsibility between EU institutions and all levels of governance in Member States.
Source – EU Commission