Climate neutrality and energy security, circular economy, environmentally friendly mobility, sustainable food, protection of ecosystems: The European Green Deal has many facets. Around 200 actors from politics, business, and society discussed the contents and their implementation in the regions, as well as current developments, on February 27 (Tuesday) at the Spring Reception of the Regions in the State Parliament in Düsseldorf. Münsterland e.V., one of the ten partner organizations of the alliance, was also present.
André Kuper, President of the NRW State Parliament, welcomed the guests. “Strong regions in Europe are the backbone of democracy. We need close regional and cross-border cooperation to meet the diverse challenges of our time — for sustainable industry and agriculture, modern transport infrastructure, and climate neutrality. Only together can we initiate these important processes.”
European Green Deal as an Economic Strategy
The keynote was delivered by Kurt Vandenberghe, Director-General for Climate Action of the European Commission. “The European Green Deal is our economic strategy. Ecological transformation is not just an environmental agenda but also a fiscal and economic one. Only with sustainable, innovative business models and decoupling economic growth from resource consumption can we remain economically successful in the long term and maintain our standard of living. This requires particularly high investments at the beginning, which will pay off economically in the medium and long term. In these investment decisions, we want to support companies and reduce bureaucracy.”
“The green and digital transformation in the context of the European Green Deal is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The success of the transformation is decided in the local organization, in the regions,” emphasized the boards and managing directors of the regionen.NRW alliance at the event.
After the presentations and impulses, the regions engaged in intensive exchanges with the guests over beer and pretzels.