Senior members of the European Committee of the Regions met in Mullingar, Ireland, and adopted a declaration calling on the EU to put “territorial cohesion” at the centre of its next long-term budget for 2028 to 2034.
The Committee of the Regions (CoR), an EU advisory body representing local and regional authorities, said in a statement on Wednesday that its Bureau agreed the Mullingar Declaration on “A future worth staying for” at the end of the meeting.
The group welcomed the European Commission’s forthcoming “Right to Stay Strategy”, saying people should be able to remain in their home regions by choice rather than being forced to move because of a lack of opportunities.
It called for a “place-based approach” — meaning policies designed around local conditions — and for local and regional authorities to have a central role in shaping and delivering the strategy.
Members warned that moving decisions on territorial investment towards national governments under the EU budget for 2028 to 2034 could weaken the EU’s ability to address social and economic disparities and respond to local needs.
The next long-term EU budget should include “adequate, predictable and place-based” investment, including through Cohesion Policy, which is the EU’s main funding framework for reducing regional gaps.
Irish Presidency meetings in Mullingar
The meeting was part of the official programme of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU and was hosted by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, the Committee of the Regions said.
Committee president Kata Tüttő stated that the “right to stay” meant giving people “a real choice” over where to build their future, and said this required investment in jobs, housing, connectivity and services, particularly through EU cohesion policy in 2028 to 2034.
The gathering was followed on 23 September by a meeting of the Committee of the Regions’ Conference of Presidents with John Cummins, Ireland’s Minister of State for Local Government, bringing together the leaders of the body’s six political groups.
