At its Plenary Session on 26 January 2022, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted the Opinion "Local and regional authorities accelerating the implementation of the EU Pollinators Initiative". Here, we highlight some of the key calls and commitments outlined in the opinion. The rapporteur for this opinion is Frida Nilsson (SE/RE), Member of the Local Assembly of the Lidköping Municipality (Sweden).
Safeguard partner IEEP participated in the stakeholder consultation for the opinion in October 2021. During the meeting, participants were invited to provide additional content on the topics discussed.
We provided some input based on IEEP’s past work supporting the
implementation of the EU Pollinators Initiative, and future work
under Safeguard (attached below). We are happy to see many of our inputs
reflected in the opinion.
The
opinion outlines key actions the CoR will take to accelerate the
implementation of the EPI at the local and regional level. These
include the following commitments:
- "offers to work with the European Commission towards making the pollinators initiative part of existing EU initiatives, such as the Urban Greening Platform and the Green City Accord"
- "offers
to support the implementation of a new EU Pollinators Initiative, in
particular regarding the implementation and monitoring activities"
- "raise
awareness and underline the importance of objectives supporting
pollinators, should set out clear roles for national, regional and local
governments to contribute to reversing the loss of pollinators and support the development of national and local pollinator action plans, also as part of the Green Deal Going Local campaign"
- "offers to launch a Pollinators Network as a pilot project, where local authorities can share knowledge and best practices with each other, aimed in particular at urban centres"
- "calls on local and regional authorities to monitor and report on the conditions of pollinators,
as knowledge of native species and local flora and fauna is key to
understanding the local conditions of both wild and domesticated
pollinators, and local and regional authorities are already familiar
with their local and regional conditions;"
- "calls on CoR members to lead by example and organise dialogues and open meetings at the local and regional levels,
ensuring that civil society and NGOs are included, as finding and
closing knowledge gaps is one of the most important aspects of the
Pollinators Initiative"
In
addition, the opinion underlines the need to look beyond agricultural
policies for pollinator conservation and highlights the important role
urban areas can play in safeguarding pollinators. To achieve pollinator
conservation, the CoR also points out pollinator protection must
consider all three pillars of sustainability (social, environmental and
economic) and delivers for the SDGs, and must effectively engage all
relevant stakeholders sectors.IEEP will be closely following these commitments as well as the revision of the EPI.
Read the full opinion here (translated to all EU languages)
Photo: European Committee of the Regions (CoR) logo