On 27th August 2010, in a speech delivered in Rimini -a member of Energy Cities- the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, presented the Covenant of Mayors as an exemplary initiative for Europe.
Invited to talk at the 31st Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, he expressed his desire to extend such innovative partnerships to other policy areas and said this was “subsidiarity in action1”. His message underlined the fact that “As a result, local governments have become leading actors in implementing sustainable energy policies”1.