Following the European Union elections, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) convened its first committee meeting. The meeting included Nino Rukhadze, the Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia and Vice-President of CEMR, and Ketevan Khomeriki, a member of the Ozurgeti Municipality Council.
Nino Rukhadze gave a speech at the large-scale meeting held in Brussels, one of the main topics of which was the development of mechanisms for balancing economic interests and European values.
As the Georgian delegate pointed out, the economy has always been the pillar of European power. Europe should strive to create a symbiotic relationship between economic interests and European values so that one feeds the other.
According to Nino Rukhadze, Europe should address this question, which will have important consequences not only for Europe but for the entire world. She stated that values are the biggest asset that led Europe and attracted strategic partners.
“I think, besides values, an important part of the European brand is capabilities. I come from a country where Europe is seen as a place of opportunity. Europe must help build capacity around the world, and there is no better place to build that capacity than local areas, no better agent to utilize that capacity than local governments, and no more effective mechanism for implementation than decentralized cooperation. It would be reasonable for the European Union to integrate decentralized cooperation more into the field of development cooperation and to make substantial investments in this area,” said Nino Rukhadze
As noted at the two-day meeting of the Policy Committee, the event is an essential platform for CEMR to address current local challenges and define future priorities, ensuring that local and regional governments effectively contribute to the European agenda.
Members of the European Platform for the Development of Local and Regional Governments (PLATFORMA), including Tengiz Mtvarelishvili, Chairman of the City Council of Telavi Municipality, and Levan Abashidze, Deputy Chairman of the “Georgian Dream for a Democratic Georgia” faction, attended the European Council of Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) committee meeting.
