The Four Motors for Europe Regional Councils come together to explore collaboration opportunities
Following up on the work started by Baden-Württemberg in 2023, during its Presidency year, the Lombardy Region partnered with the local Regional Council to propose a series of meetings at technical level with parliamentary representatives of the Four Motors regions and explore new forms of partnershipamong the legislative bodies of the network regions, expanding the ongoing collaboration established at governmental level in 1988.
The first institutional gathering was organized in a hybrid format, both remotely and in-presence, on October 8, 2024, during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2024 held in Brussels. The event was an opportunity to convene technical representatives of the regional legislative assemblies of the Four Motors and encourage a reflection on how to enhance their cooperation. In this regard, the participation of all partner regions was relevant in remarking the commitment of the Four Motors regions to value cooperation also through the different policymaking models which characterize each region.
The partners agreed on the benefits of creating a structured technical inter-parliamentary network focused on identifying common priorities and promoting the exchange of best practices in strategic fields like education, AI, innovation and sustainability.
A second online meeting was then held on December 17, 2024, with the goal of presenting the comparative study on the competences of the Regional Assemblies, realized by the Institutional Relations Office of the Lombardy Regional Council, and outlining some preliminary proposals for concrete collaborations. Several critical topics were discussed, including gender equalityand retributive parity policies, awareness campaigns on theprotection of natural resources and mountain ecosystems, the agri-food sector and the model of the “food districts”, the issue of population aging, strategies for the decarbonization in parliamentary buildings and training programs on artificial intelligence in the work processes of parliamentary institutions.
The relevance and multiplicity of the topics addressed in these preliminary discussions, pave the way for future common initiatives, proving once more the intention to strengthen the ties among the Four Motors for Europe regions.
