ECR CoR President Władysław Ortyl, Marshal of the Podkarpackie region, spoke at The Future of Europe is Localism debate hosted by ECR Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes, which he opened by emphasizing that the ECR Group – both in the European Parliament and in the European Committee of the Regions – "distinguishes from all other groups by their strong feeling that the decentralisation of the EU is in the common interest of the entire Community".

For the ECR President, one of the biggest issues as a result of the constant transfer of competences from the national level to the EU level is the "very limited influence citizens have on shaping the political reality". Although responsible for the implementation at local and regional level of more than 70% of EU legislation and most EU investment programmes, local government authorities are "de facto largely devoid of influence on its shaping".

The ECR CoR President continued to say that one of the group's aims in the CoR is to "strive to have more influence on the EU so that it systematically prepares territorial impact assessments". He gave the examples of the Green Deal or the mobility package as European Commission proposals that have "costs and impacts" that are not only "distributed unevenly among the Member States but also among European regions" and require additional territorial analyses.

While Marshal Ortyl recognises the obvious positive impact of the EU on the lives of citizens such as "new sales markets have opening up for our entrepreneurs", as well as the "improvement of infrastructure" in less developed regions, he also expressed disappointment at the attempt by the EU to impose a specific worldview – "often contrary to the traditions and culture of individual countries or even regions".

On Friday 26 February, Bucharest, Romania, hosted the fourth event in the ECR Group in the European Parliament's conference "Europe's Future - A New Hope".

The ECR Group in the European Parliament launched the European tour on the Future of the EU in December 2020. The tour takes the form of a series of live broadcasts from 15 European capitals, in which citizens of European Member States are consulted. Warsaw, Sofia and Zagreb have already played host to the travelling conference.