At the extraordinary Group Meeting held in Brussels on 29 January 2025, Mayor of St Omer and Vice-president of the Hauts-de-France region in France, Francois Decoster was re-elected as President of the Renew Europe Group in the European Committee of the Regions for the new mandate 2025 – 2030.
A prominent figure in the Renew Europe political family, Francois Decoster has played a crucial role in the European Committee of the Regions since joining in 2012. His leadership includes chairing the Citizenship, Governance and External Relations (CIVEX) Commission from 2015 to 2017, leading the French delegation from 2017 to 2020, and serving as Vice-President of our group from 2015 to 2020. Since 2020, he has been the President of Renew Europe CoR. Decoster has also been a key player in major CoR initiatives, setting up and chairing the Brexit Interregional Group, and contributing to the COR-UK Contact Group, and various CoR initiatives related to the EU’s neighbourhood policy. He was part of the CoR delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe and has been multiple times a CoR rapporteur, tackling critical issues such as migration policy, skills and talent mobility, and the Rights and Values Programme in which he laid the groundwork for the EU councillors’ initiative, which expands the CoR’s reach into the Union’s subnational governance and is now a formal programme run jointly with the European Commission.
“I strongly believe that the previous mandate has transformed the European Committee of the Regions – we are more respected by the other EU institutions and we are more connected than ever to other local and regional representations. And we are more committed because we strongly believe that the European project starts in our towns, villages and regions. That is a priority for us – if we want the European ideal to work, we have to really do it here at the CoR, but also with the citizens that we represent and the territories that we represent.” – Francois Decoster, Renew Europe COR President
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Beyond his European responsibilities, Decoster has been deeply engaged in regional and local governance. Elected Mayor of Saint-Omer in 2014 and re-elected in 2020 with a huge mandate, he also serves as Vice-President in charge of International Relations, Culture, Heritage, and Minority Languages for the Région Hauts-de-France. His career spans over two decades, including key advisory roles in the private office of the French Defence Minister and the French Minister Delegate for European Affairs. He also assisted two French Members of the European Parliament and was the coordinator of the delegation of French MEPs of the EDP group.
Decoster’s expertise extends into academia, having lectured at Sciences-Po Paris, Sciences-Po Lille, and Paris-Assas University on European affairs. He is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, where he teaches EU Transport and Space Policies. His scholarly contributions include a publication on EU transport policy, reflecting his tenure as Diplomatic Advisor to the French Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Housing, Tourism, and the Sea.