The main annual meeting of AER attracted 300 members in Wroclaw (Dolnoslaskie–PL). Beside the statutory matters including the presentation of all AER activities or the changes to the rules of procedure, the Bureau, extra-ordinary and ordinary General Assembly have discussed the results of the European elections and highlighted equal opportunities.

Two days after the European Parliament election results were proclaimed, four rapporteurs representing the geographic and political diversity of our Assembly, led the discussion about the messages AER wanted to convey to the new Parliament. AER positions on cohesion policy, youth employment, demographic change, economic subsidiarity and innovation were emphasized.

AER will now use its lobbying power, including some of our members who were elected MEPs, to make sure these messages, which have been gathered in the “Dolnoslaskie political statement” and sent to all our institutional contacts, will be taken into account by the EU legislative chamber.

Finally AER also chose to put equal opportunities at the centre of its GA discussion. Ms Therese Murphy from the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) presented the state of play in Europe and the concrete actions regions can take to reduce these unacceptable inequalities. Monica Carlsson, AER Vice President for Equal Opportunity, took that opportunity to announce that a partnership is being built with EIGE.

We would like to thank our host, the region of Dolnoslaskie, for their kind welcome and take this opportunity to highlight a project that they are leading with our partner organisation ALDA, to set up a local democracy agency in Dnipropetrovsk (UA). In light of the current difficulties in the country, and AER’s active engagement in voicing the interest of regions in Ukraine, we invite interested members to contact Dolnoslaskie to support this initiative.