Speaking at the plenary session of the European Summit of Regions and Cities in Mons, Juraj Droba, Vice-President of the ECR Group and President of the Bratislava region, calls for a robust metropolitan agenda for the future cohesion policy.

"Cohesion policy must aim to reduce regional disparities, with a focus on the most disadvantaged areas. However, this period presents an ideal opportunity to re-evaluate how we define disparities among regions, and we must move beyond relying solely on GDP as the parameter", stressed Vice-President Droba.

Referring to the Covid, migration and energy crises, Mr Droba emphasised that the EU cannot cope with such crises without the leadership of metropolitan regions, and highlighted the need for a balance between long-term objectives and flexibility to react to crises and a "strong metropolitan agenda for the cohesion policy post-2027".