Europe's cities demand direct access to the new "Next Generation EU" funding instrument
Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig is a co-signatory of the joint letter from the German members of EUROCITIES
The mayors of the cities of Leipzig, Mannheim, Bonn, Chemnitz, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Cologne, Münster, Munich and Stuttgart have sent a joint letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
As German members of EUROCITIES, the most important network of major European cities, they are calling for direct access for cities to the funds of the Next Generation EU programme. Cities should be able to access EU funds, e.g. from the Reconstruction and Resilience Facility and ReactEU, as unbureaucratically as possible in order to achieve faster deployment and a greater impact of the funds at local level. In the current funding period, municipalities must apply for funding from EU funds at state, federal or European level.
In this letter, Chancellor Angela Merkel is asked to ensure that during the German EU Council Presidency, cities are also involved in decision-making processes and that Europe-wide local investment gaps of the last ten years are closed.
In recent months in particular, cities have been at the forefront of the crisis, overcoming unprecedented challenges. Municipal budgets have been weakened across Europe. Despite everything, they are working together to reshape Europe for future generations. The crisis should be used as an opportunity for systematic change to achieve a digital and fair recovery.