The Committee of the Regions after 10 Years: Lessons from the Past and Challenges for the Future

This article reviews the past, present and future challenges facing the Committee of the Regions, 10 years after its creation. It looks first at the way in which politics inside the Committee have developed, in particular how internal divisions have been managed, prior to examining the relations between the Committee, the EU institutions and other actors on the national level. Based on these observations, the article then briefly assesses the effectiveness of the Committee's work, taking not only account of the opinions it has delivered, but also the wider impact its activity has had on the role of regions in the European Union. By way of conclusion the article then identifies some long-term trends in the institutional life of the Committee of the Regions, and against this background looks ahead towards the challenges the Committee faces after the enlargement of the European Union and the adoption of the Constitutional Treaty.