Roberto Ciambetti, president of the Veneto Regional Council and member of the European Conservatives & Reformists Group, will lead the Italian Delegation to the European Committee of the Regions. Following a plenary session of the CoR on 12 February, it was decided that Mr Ciambetti would lead this politically diverse delegation of municipal and provincial representatives for a new two-and-a-half-year term. ECR members Juraj Droba and Pavel Branda were also elected chairman and deputy chairman of the Slovak and Czech national delegations respectively.

Under Mr Ciambetti's leadership eleven presidents of regional councils, eighteen representatives of municipalities and six representatives of Italian provinces are to be represented at the European Committee of the Regions. Some of the new members which Mr Ciambetti will represent as head of the Italian delegation include Sebastiano Musumeci, president of the Sicilian region, the president of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga, and the mayor of Rome, Virgina Raggi.

Referring to his assumption of leadership of the Italian delegation, Mr Ciambetti said: "It is a great honour to lead the delegation from Italy, one of the largest EU countries. I hope that the climate of cooperation within the delegation will continue in the future. We are here to uphold the interests of our citizens and improve the European Union. One of the most important challenges is the Conference on the Future of Europe, where we hope to convey the views of Italian local and regional authorities and help to turn things around for the EU."

There are 329 Committee members from the 27 Member States, the Italian delegation numbering 24. Another 24 alternative members stand in for full members when their principal work in their regional communities prevent them from attending CoR events.

The Slovak delegation, which will again be led by ECR vice-president Juraj Droba, consists of nine full and nine alternate members. Commenting on his re-election as head of the Slovak delegation, Mr Droba said: "I very much appreciate the trust I have been given. I have held this office for the last almost two years and I am glad that I will continue in this role. I think I can bring a lot of good ideas from Slovakia to Brussels and, in turn, take all the good things I learn here back to my home country and put them into practice."

Finally, our Czech member Pavel Branda was re-elected deputy chairman of his national delegation, which consists of twelve full members and the same number of alternates.

By virtue of these offices, all three of these ECR members have become members of the CoR Bureau.