EU Commissioners participate in the European Summit of Regions and Cities from 18-19 March in Mons, Belgium

Brussels, 15 March 2024

From 18-19 March, Executive Vice-President Šefčovič, Vice-Presidents Věra Jourová, Dubravka Šuica and Margaritis Schinas, and Commissioners Nicolas Schmit, Elisa Ferreira, Helena Dalli, Ylva Johansson, Janez  Lenarčič, Olivér Várhelyi and Iliana Ivanova will participate in the 10^th European Summit of Regions and Cities in Mons, Belgium.

The Summit will gather thousands of mayors, councillors, regional ministers and other European and global decision-makers, to discuss how regions and cities can contribute to the future of the EU, focusing on key topics such as democracy, sustainable development, green transition, gender equality, EU enlargement and social, economic and territorial cohesion.

On Monday, 18 March, Commissioners Ferreira and Schmit will deliver speeches as part of the session, ‘Just transition and cohesion at the heart of future EU investment policies’. Commissioner Ferreira will also deliver a speech at the session, ‘A renewed Cohesion Policy that leaves no one behind’. Commissioner Johansson will deliver a video message during the ‘Building inclusive communities’ session and Commissioner Dalli will deliver a video message during the ‘Strategies and approaches to improve gender parity in politics’ event.

On Tuesday, 19 March, Vice-President Schinas will kick-off discussions with a keynote speech as part of the ‘EU Elections 2024′ session. Commissioner Ivanova will address the ‘Co-creating cities and regions with young people’ session with a video message, followed by a video message by Executive Vice-President Šefčovič as part of the Green Deal session.

The plenary session on ‘the vision of regions and cities for the Future of Europe’ will see Vice-President Šuica speak alongside Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and others. The plenary will adopt the Mons Declaration, a declaration that sets out the vision of regions and cities for the future of Europe. Commissioner Várhelyi will then deliver a video message at the session on Ukraine, while Commissioner Lenarčič will deliver a speech via video message at the ‘Preparing region and cities against crises’ session.

Vice-President Jourová will conclude the two-day event by speaking at the final session of this year’s programme, which will focus on democracy and values.

The full programme is available here.