Members of the ECON Commission have today adopted ECR coordinator Ilpo Heltimoinen's opinion on the economic resilience of regions, which urges the European Commission to strengthen economic resilience alongside competitiveness.

The rapporteur positively welcomed that the European Commission has recently focused on enhancing the economic competitiveness of the EU, but stated that economic resilience should also be "high on the agenda of the next legislative mandate". It is important to foster the diversification of regional economies and secure regional value chains, while "paying particular attention to regional specificities, such as the external border regions", highlighted ECON Vice-Chair Heltimoinen.

Underlining the challenges to the Single Market in recent years, including the 2007 financial crisis and the subsequent debt crisis, and COVID-19 and Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Heltimoinen also stressed the need to pay "increased attention to the concept of comprehensive security and security of supply across the European Union".

The Finnish councillor also emphasised the importance of secure energy supplies, which "form the foundation of regional resilience". In this context, he referred to the "essential role of nuclear energy in increasing the EU's energy resilience and independence, while contributing to our decarbonisation process".

The draft opinion will next be voted in the CoR plenary session in October.