Bandon-based Fianna Fáil Cllr Gillian Coughlan has been unanimously elected to lead the influential Renew Europe political group in the EU’s assembly of local and regional representatives known as the European Committee of the Regions.
This new high profile position will give Bandon-Kinsale Municipal District and County Cork enormous visibility at European level.
Tasked by the EU Treaties to help European decision-makers have a better understanding of how the Union is functioning in its local communities the Committee of the Regions is an assembly of subnational politicians appointed by the national governments of the 27 EU member states. It was established in 1994 and Ireland sends 18 local councillors, 9 full members and 9 substitutes.
Renew Europe is the name of the political family where Fianna Fáil sits in the EU institutions, and national leaders belonging to Renew Europe include French President Emmanuel Macron, the Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, and the EU ́s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Kaja Kallas.
Cllr Coughlan is now leading this political family’s grouping in the Committee of the Regions, which brings together subnational leaders from across the Union, including the President of the Basque Country in Spain, the Vice-President of Normandy in France, the King’s Commissioner of North Holland, the President of Brussels Capital Region, as well as the mayors of the capital cities of Bulgaria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovakia, and many other mayors, local councillors, and regional parliamentarians.
Cllr Coughlan has been a member of this assembly since 2020, and since then has contributed to European affairs in multiple ways: as lead drafter on a report related to the future of digital education, another one on relations with local authorities of Western Balkan countries wishing to join the Union, and currently she is drafting a report on the local dimension of relations between the EU and the United Kingdom. In each of those roles she has introduced her European counterparts to the Irish perspective and specifically the experience, needs and successes of the citizens, businesses and institutions of County Cork.
As president of Renew Europe in the Committee of the Regions, Gillian Coughlan will have additional opportunities to raise awareness of the needs, concerns as well as best practice of Ireland and Cork County, especially within the vast network of over 1 million local and regional elected representatives throughout the European Union, whom the European Committee of the Regions represents in the EU decision making process.
