“Mitigating pandemic impact: successful action plans of local municipalities”

The Robert Schuman Institute together with its partner the Eduardo Frei Foundation is inviting you to the workshop entitled “Mitigating Pandemic impact: successful action plans for local municipalities”. This is a follow up on our earlier discussion on mayors’ response to social, economic and community challenges against the pandemic backdrop. On the previous occasion we focused on the general principles and approaches. This time we will bring in specific examples of actually implemented measures and cases of genuine innovation. Our EPP family has by now accumulated, and is ready to share some good practices and experiences which can be used as reference and serve as inspiration for municipal leadership to work out their own viable solutions based on already tested models.

Target groups:

Our panelists:

Paul Boogaard, alderman and deputy mayor in the municipality of Korendijk, Netherlands, member of the city council for 8 years. Paul worked at various management positions in trade company’s in the past (sales, communication and marketing). He was a candidate for the Dutch House of Representatives elections of 2017 for his political party CDA.

Paul is also working as a teacher and course leader at ProDemos –House for Democracy and the Rule of Law, providing support to provincial and municipal authorities, citizens, and other professionals, conducting courses and workshops and developing tailor-made recommendations and guidance. He has a lot of experience in training politicians (skills training, ideology, party development).

At the local level he is working on the election program for the local elections in 2018 in Hoeksche Waard, a municipal in the province of South Holland with around 86.000 inhabitants. He is also responsible for local and regional political campaigns.

Our audience: the attendees of the previous EFF-RSI roundtable, and others interested in learning about the coronavirus pandemic impact on communities, and the concrete response measures of local politician colleagues – altogether around 15-20 local politicians from SEE, EE, MENA, EU countries.

Our experts will focus on specific measures as part of the overall response plan, developed and implemented by their municipalities to mitigate COVID-19 impact on health, social, and economic sectors. They will elaborate on their local examples for one of these main points throughout their presentations:

• Local government’s approach to decision making towards pandemic handling, underlying values and principles;
• Ensuring social compliance with general virus containment rules: physical distancing and hygiene measures, among other;
• Care for those in need, regardless whether infected by virus or not, assistance to vulnerable groups;
• Support to people, businesses and organisations affected by the crisis;
• Safe, controlled transmission to new normal: easing restrictions while maintaining necessary precautions;
• Protection against this and future pandemics, including through effective testing, contact tracing and isolation; 
• Renewal of the municipality, building a fairer and more sustainable economy and society.

We would like to invite you to join us via Zoom meeting (zoom.us) on July 3 Friday, 2020, between 17-18.30h CET and participate in the discussion. The registration form can be found here: registration form. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR REGISTRATION!

Evgenia Jarabik