ISRAEL and HAMAS at WAR
Israel came under a sustained attack on its territory, when hordes of Hamas militants broke through the border from Gaza and went on a murderous rampage in the surrounding area. At least 1,200 people were slaughtered, including 260 at a music festival. More than 100 Israelis and foreign nationals, including children and older persons, are being held hostage in Gaza.
This is considered the deadliest attack on the country since its foundation in 1948.
More than 300,000 people are homeless and more than 1790 Palestinians died according to the Health Minister in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound Gaza in retaliation, with no immediate sign that emergency relief would be allowed in. “UNICEF is calling for an immediate cease fire as 1.1 million people – nearly half of them children – have been warned to move out of the way,” adding there is “nowhere safe for civilians to go.”
REUTERS-A dove flies over the debris of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
>More with The Economist or REUTERS or United Nations UN News.
IN THE MEANTIME, the 19-month old war in UKRAINE...
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia could use the Israel-Hamas war to push some of its narrative, including that Western support for Ukraine will decline. More with Euronews here.
President Zelensky made a surprise visit to NATO headquarters on Wednesday, urging the military alliance to maintain its flow of weapons to his country for its war against Russia. Senior NATO officials privately conceded that Ukraine might have cause for concern, given the violence in Israel and the budget fight in the United States Congress that threatens American war funding. - The New York Times
This Thursday, G7 officials have backed European efforts to tap billions of euros of profits generated from frozen Russian assets. The proposals would see the EU hand a portion of profits booked on more than €200bn-worth of financial assets owned by the Russian state to Ukraine. - FT
2023 EU Annual Report
On 9 October 2023, on the occasion of its October Plenary, the European Committee of the Regions published the latest edition of the EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities, as a snapshot of the most pressing challenges faced by regions and cities across Europe, as well as solutions from the ground to inform EU policy decisions.
These are the 10 main topics:
Despite stretched resources, local authorities in the EU focused not only on emergency measures (such as reception centres, housing and medical care for displaced people) but are also now turning their attention to long-term strategies for the socioeconomic inclusion of four million Ukrainian refugees (such as social welfare, language training and job-insertion).
> Source, EU Annual Report 2023
Ensure a multi-level governance approach to the energy transition. Only with increased EU funds can local and regional projects increase and improve their impact to meet the EU’s climate ambition on the ground and strengthen acceptance for the green transition within local communities.
To protect its regions from the harmful impacts of climate change, the EU would need to invest about EUR 40 billion every year, if the global temperature stays within a 1.5°C increase. This amount would rise up to EUR 120 billion and 200 billion per year to adapt to a 2°C or 3°- 4°C temperature increase. Only stronger investments in climate adaptation and mitigation can preserve cohesion among the EU and within Member States.
> Source, EU Annual Report 2023
4. Food safety
The Russian war against Ukraine and the extreme climate events had a strong impact on European agriculture. Local and regional authorities are confronted with the social emergency of food poverty in their local communities: over 32.5 million Europeans cannot afford a proper meal every other day.
5. The European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals
Without the commitment of European regions and cities, 105 out of 169 targets set out by the SDGs will not be achieved by 2030, such as the reduction of poverty and the greening of local infrastructures. Regions and cities often lack the financial resources and technical capacities to implement the SDGs and plan investments in Green Deal measures.
6. The Green and digital transition
The green and digital transitions increase both costs and risks and put existential challenges to many European regions. As 41 regions are considered to be the most vulnerable due to the green and digital transitions, regions and cities are seeking ways to ensure their resilience and competitiveness by adopting new strategies, building up expertise, providing means for upskilling
> Source, EU Annual Report 2023
7. The future of cohesion policy
Cohesion policy as long-term investment contributes to a better performing single market, closing the development gap between regions by providing them with social resources and infrastructures. However, regional differences remain large. The future of cohesion policy needs to be designed as an inclusive strategy engaging all people and stakeholders at all levels, addressing the current policy fragmentation and complexity across several funds.
By 2033, it is estimated that 30 million people will have left Europe’s rural areas. Rural regions face obstacles that threaten their growth as well as the EU’s objectives to achieve climate neutrality. Young people and families leave rural areas because of the lack of services, such as schools, hospitals, public transport and digital connectivity. Regional and local governments are actively involved in formulating and executing integrated rural development initiatives, such as dedicated local schooling projects, as well as mobility concepts for rural villages and green entrepreneurship schemes for women.
> Source, EU Annual Report 2023
Member States’ local and regional authorities are more trusted than national governments and, in most countries, they are more trusted than the EU institutions as well. Rising discontent in regions and cities threatens the overall social cohesion in the EU. A higher involvement of subnational levels of government would help to make EU policies better understood and accepted by citizens.
> Source, EU Annual Report 2023
The Russian war against Ukraine has put EU enlargement policy higher up on the political agenda and highlighted the importance of ensuring stability in the EU neighbourhood, both at its eastern and southern borders, through enhanced cross-border cooperation. Regions and cities in candidate countries have a key role to play in engaging citizens in the accession process, consolidating European values and fostering European integration
> For more, the report and the factsheet
La Belgique a annoncé la création d’un fonds spécial d’assistance à l’Ukraine de 1,7 milliards EUR dont l’argent servira à financer l’aide militaire et humanitaire à l’Ukraine. Le fonds sera alimenté par les avoirs gelés de la Russie.
Le président ukrainien participait ce mercredi 11 octobre à une réunion de l’OTAN et a rencontré le premier ministre belge, Alexander De Croo (Open VLD), en compagnie des ministres de la Défense, Ludivine Dedonder (PS), et des Affaires étrangères, Hadja Lahbib (MR).
EU's Digital Services Act enforced: The EU has opened an investigation into X, formerly Twitter, over the way illegal content and disinformation of terrorist and violent content is spreading on its platform in the wake of the attacks by Hamas against Israel. The formal probe, which is the first to be launched under the newly approved Digital Services Act, comes days after EU commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to billionaire Elon Musk raising concerns that the platform was “being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation”.
>More with POLITICO here.
COHESION
The EU and some of its Member States, such as Germany, focus on the possibility of addressing the problem of shrinking EU working-age population with migration from third countries. As part of the proposal, there is the EU Talent Pool which would be a platform designed to match European employers who are unable to fill their vacancies with jobseekers from third countries. In addition, after the events in Israel and Gaza, the EU engagement with Egypt on migration is even more pressing.
The success stories in the EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities
A break from war - summer holidays for Ukrainian children
Summer holidays for Ukrainian children gave many Ukrainian children the opportunity to enjoy summer holiday youth programmes in diverse cities and regions, such as Nimes (France), Athens (Greece), Rome (Italy), Tampere (Finland), Gdansk (Poland), Portimao (Portugal), Preili (Latvia), Wielkopolska (Poland), Lubelskie (Poland), Maramures (Romania), Podkarpackie (Poland), Pomorskie (Poland), Bavaria (Germany), Lodzkie (Poland) as well as Miskolc and Sátoraljaújhely (Hungary).
Resilient reconstruction and social support in Wallonia
In response to the catastrophic floods in 2021, Wallonia’s regional government is developing its Master Plan de la Vallée de la Vesdre and sustainable neighbourhood programmes, aimed at rebuilding the area responsibly and sustainably. 40 million euros will be invested in new public housing for the most affected municipalities. Moreover, the Walloon government has pledged 1.03 billion euros to fully cover citizens affected by the floods.
Preparing for droughts, Catalan water management plan 2022-2027
Aware of the devastating impact of droughts on regional agriculture, the government of Catalonia (Spain) approved in May 2023 its 2022-2027 Water Management Plan laying out investments to a value of 2.4 billion euros to “prepare the region for droughts that will become increasingly frequent and more severe” (the rainfall pattern is likely to diminish by 18% in the next couple of decades).
According to the President of the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani (ANCI), Antonio Decaro, Italian municipalities are highly active in the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans. Municipalities were assigned €40 billion out of total €191.5 billion, and have already committed 90% of those funds, twice the average commitment rate for funds allocated to other entities.
Vilnius city counters cyber-attacks with help from ethical hackers
Following a series of impactful cyberattacks on the digital infrastructure of Vilnius (Lithuania) the city put in place an effective strategy to counter cyberattacks. In 2021, the city adopted a ten-year Strategic Development Plan and developed a ‘Responsible Vulnerability Detection Policy’, i.e., a set of rules encouraging ethical hackers to identify and submit information on security vulnerabilities to the responsible authority without being prosecuted.
Energy villages Cochem-Zell, Germany
The State of Rhineland-Palatinate is supporting the Cochem-Zeller Energiedorf (Energy Village) project. The project is a perfect example of a change coming from civil society impetus. It develops sustainable heating supply networks in several villages. The heat is obtained from wood that comes from the local forests (wood chips from residual forest wood) and solar thermal. This strengthens the added value in the region. At the same time, direct optical fibre connection is provided to residents.
> For more, the report and the factsheet.
McKinsey’s authoritative guide to digital and AI transformation serves as both playbook and reference. Authors Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje and Rodney Zemmel draw from five years of McKinsey consultants’ work around the world, advising a bold, integrated approach that emphasizes the organization’s capabilities and people. Written for executives, its recommendations apply to organizations of all sizes and reflect current research and emerging best practices.
getabstract access here, for CoR colleagues. If the link does not work, please contact us at documentationCdR@cor.europa.eu
On October 9th 2023, Claudia Goldin, a professor at Harvard University, has won the Nobel Prize for economics for advancing the understanding of women’s labour market outcomes. The committee awarding the prize, officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, said she had “provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market outcomes throughout the centuries”, revealing the main causes of change and the main sources of the remaining gender gap.
> More here, with The Nobel Prize.
The gender employment gap remains significant in 2022
Across the EU, the proportion of men of working age in employment exceeded that of women by 10.8pp. This gender employment gap varies significantly across EU Member States, with the lowest gap reported in Lithuania (1.4pp) and the highest in Romania (20.1pp).
>Source, Eurostat 2021
Trends in the labour market showcase strong positive signs
Despite considerable gender discrepancies, women’s labour force participation continues to improve. Nominal wage growth has also improved but has remained behind inflation in the majority of Member States. However, women’s gross hourly wages in the EU, in 2021, remain 14.4% lower than men’s, despite the fact that closing the gender pay gap remains a top objective for gender policy at both the EU and national levels.
A promising statistic is that women have taken up two out of every three new jobs created in the EU over the previous two decades, with the rise being greatest among 30-49-year-olds and older women aged 50+; however, to reach the gender and employment objectives outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, women’s employment must rise at least three times faster than men’s by the end of the decade.
Women in rural areas are more likely to be unemployed than men, and are more likely than women in urban areas to work in informal employment
Limited access to public services related to childcare worsens their situation even more. At the EU level in 2021, the labour market activity rate was 78.5%. The difference between cities and rural areas was 1.3%, which is relatively modest overall. However, in rural areas, women are generally less economically active than men, leading to a larger gender labour market activity gap in these areas in comparison to others. This range is 13 to 20 percentage points between women and men.
> Source, Eurostat 2021
To support young holders of public mandates, the CoR has brought to life the Young Elected Politicians Programme (YEPs). It was created at the eighth CoR Summit of Regions and Cities404 in 2019. YEPs is a network of representatives who are no older than 40 and hold a mandate at regional or local level in the EU or in candidate countries for EU accession. Their important role was mentioned in two points of SOTEULocal 2023:
"The Young Elected Politicians programme and the Network of Local and Regional Councillors can further support local and regional elected representatives, reinforcing the bridge between the EU and local communities".
"The CoR is focusing its enlargement work on practical capacity building and has notably enlarged its Young Elected Politicians Programme (YEPs) to candidate countries".
> For more, the report
NASA unveiled the first soil samples it recovered from Bennu, an asteroid, after a seven-year mission. Bennu’s carbon-rich soil contained sulphur and water-bearing clay minerals.
The samples could help scientists understand how Earth became a water planet 4.5bn years ago. Asteroids may have crashed into Earth, bringing H20 with them.
Asteroid Bennu, survivor of the solar system
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