Statement from President Kata Tüttő on Europe Day

Statement from President of the European Committee of the Regions Kata Tüttő on Europe Day (9 May):

On Europe Day, we celebrate an extraordinary human achievement:
the ability of millions of people, cultures, languages and histories to live together in peace.

Europe was never meant to be a machine producing identical people, identical languages, identical memories.

Its strength lies elsewhere.

In its diversity - and in the translation between its many truths. In the difficult art of understanding one another.

Translating not only between languages - but between histories, generations, regions, fears, and hopes.

And perhaps this is the real task of Europe today.

To remain a place where complexity is not feared.
Where differences do not automatically become enemies. Where local memories still matter in a world driven by algorithms, speed, and simplification.

This is why cities and regions matter so much.

Because Europe does not live only in treaties or institutions. It lives in town halls, schools, cafés, neighbourhoods, festivals, markets, and public squares - in the places where people still meet physically, argue, cooperate, remember, and care for one another.

In times of fragmentation, local leaders carry a special responsibility: to keep the European flame alive not through slogans, but through trust, dignity, solidarity, and human connection.

Local communities are the resilience system of Europe.
They are the backup system of democracy: reserves of attention, innovation, memory, and human connection.

The connections between territories, between cities, between leaders and communities - these are what strengthen the fabric of Europe.

Europe survives when people still feel they belong to a shared story.

Happy Europe Day!