Honourable Members of the European Parliament, dear hosts - Christian Ehler and Marcos Ros Sempere, dear colleagues and dear teams who have worked hard and creatively to develop this relevant and very beautiful exhibition!
Thank you for being here – welcome! – and thank you for all your efforts!
It is a pleasure to see all these creative exhibits. I would really like to thank Christian and Marcos for organising this ‘impulse. I am sure it will contribute to growing the NEB family, and add even more supportive members here in the European Parliament - and beyond.
As directly elected politicians representing European citizens, your mandate is crutial to bring NEB closer to your voters – and to bridge between your constituencies and the NEB.
I am very honoured that our President, Ursula von der Leyen, has entrusted me with the coordination of the work on NEB, and leading the further development of the New European Bauhaus, working together with EVP Henna Virkkunen and other Colleagues.
And of course also with the European Parliament and the Member States. I also find that the NEB fits very well with my broader portfolio Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy.
I will be brief. We live in challenging times and it is sometimes difficult to be present everywhere – and everytime without having to move fast to the next appointment. So I apologise very much for not being able to stay here the whole evening, since I am continuing on to Davos.
I will use my interventions in Davos to talk about the New European Bauhaus – and the value that this exhibition will bring.
Threats to our water resilience, climate change, water scarcity and the broken water circle are not only challenging the health of our enviroment and nature. They also threaten our economy, social cohesion, and democracy.
We need to work much faster, be more coordinated, more coherent, and more innovative. And we need to work more creatively and more in sync with citizens and local stakeholders.
This is also where the NEB comes in. It is an important part of the toolbox that can help us develop and deliver the needed changes and solutions to peoples homes and neighbourhoods. I will bring into the conversations in Davos, as I do it whenever relevant – and that is often!
Which makes sense. We see the European NEB family is growing. The many NEB projects create value and boost affordable housing, circularity and the use of bio-based materials. NEB makes sense and deliver.
We also see a growing international interest - from Japan, Brazil and Mexico. And we work with Ukraine on the NEB, for the reconstruction.
Just before Christmas the College adopted – as part of its Affordable Housing Package – a Commission Communication on the New European Bauhaus: from vision to implementation, and proposal for Council Recommendation.
One of the very important messages from this Commission Communication is, that capitalising on its achievements, the NEB will scale-up support to businesses, innovators and communities across Europe and beyond for an inclusive, sustainable and quality-driven transformation of neighbourhoods and industries.
Scaling up does not happen via communication only. It takes cooperation, cocreation and making sure that it is easy to find facts, facilitators and funding.
Therefore Im very grateful for this initiative that our two hosts have taken together with the Commissions team in the Joint Research Centre.
I hope, that many Members of Parliament, their staff and visitors will use this exhibition to become more aware of and engaged in NEB.
Congratulations to the initiative and all the best for its success!