(Brussels) “The last 12 months have rung quite a few alarm bells for those who believe in the European project. The year that is about to end will be remembered for the dramatic terrorist attacks, the challenge of migration, voting for Brexit, and the rise of populist and euro-sceptic movements”. This has been stated by Markku Markkula, president of the European Committee of the Regions (CdR), in the run-up to 2017. “Too many are the citizens to whom the EU does not give the best solutions to solve their problems. The European Union has a favourable impact on citizens’ life, which however cannot be felt or seen. How to respond to such crisis of confidence?”. Markkula provides a few recommendations: “Firstly, citizens rightly ask for more jobs and sustainable long-term growth, and that’s why we must give priority to the building of a more competitive, job-creating Europe, but this requires making even more quality investments”. Secondly, “we will keep strengthening the CoR’s cooperation with the other EU institutions and working to improve the quality of the regulations”, in the sense of laying down fewer laws but better. “Thirdly, we must fill the gap between Brussels and the real life of the 500 million European citizens. We must cooperate and create, together, a new narrative for Europe. As local and regional leaders, we must communicate more convincingly, in our own countries, what we do and why we do it”.