Europe has been confronted with many emergencies but the "COVID-19 pandemic is probably the most striking" as it has put a "severe" strain on healthcare facilities in Europe, highlighted Marco Marsilio in a debate with the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira.

With the pandemic leading to the loss of thousands of jobs and the closure of many economic activities, "restarting will not be easy" he emphasized, and this mainly due to "economic assistance not always arriving on time". In this regard, Mr Marsilio, President of the Abruzzo Region, called on Commissioner Ferreira to envisage the "creation of an ad hoc European Agency on Social Cohesion".

On the assumption that our territory is vulnerable to an increasing number of disasters, he added that "the Agency should be provided with adequate funding to continuously monitor the state of health (in the broadest sense) of all European countries", and that in any emergency could act quickly and concretely "by cutting red tape". For the ECR Vice-President, an EU agency dedicated to social cohesion would also mean that Europe would be closer to our most "vulnerable" areas, which would ultimately "facilitate the role of the regions" who act as a "bridge" between the institutions.

He concluded his intervention by saying that the recovery must be based on social, economic and territorial cohesion, and "involve local authorities in drawing up recovery plans through structured cooperation with the Member States".

The debate took place as part of the February plenary of the European Committee of the Regions.