18 October Committee of the Regions

Date: 24/10/1996

THE bureau of the Committee of the Regions fine-tuned its demands for reform of the Maastricht Treaty at an extra-ordinary meeting in Dublin. In particular, it demanded the right to take Union institutions and member states to court for any breach of the principle of subsidiarity. Bureau members accepted, however, that it would not be practical to demand that every local and regional authority should have direct recourse to the European Court of Justice. They did, however, call for greater advisory input into European decision-making and greater internal organisational autonomy for the Committee of the Regions (CoR), and presented a declaration to the Irish EU presidency setting out these demands.

SPEAKING after the meeting, CoR President Pasqual Maragall said: “We are asking several things. We do not expect them all to become reality. We want the right to go to Luxembourg in cases where the subsidiarity rule is broken. We are also asking for the Committee itself to be able to go to the Court in defence of its prerogatives.” He accepted that, given the political difficulties in achieving treaty reform, it was also important for the CoR to put in motion practical exercises to raise awareness. Nor did he believe the Committee's calls for treaty reform were wasted effort. “Otherwise, local and regional representatives who could become Europe's teachers will not be able to act as ambassadors to the people. These representatives must see the Union acknowledging their role,” he said. A major conference of local and regional authorities on 16 May in Amsterdam is intended to highlight these concerns.

THE bureau meeting, which was more a stock-taking than policy-formulating exercise, reiterated the need for more regional input across the sphere of EU activities. Bureau members repeated their view that the treaty should broaden the subsidiarity principle to make express provision for regional and local authorities. Regional Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies agreed, warning that member states were using subsidiarity as a means of concentrating power in the hands of national administrations.

THE Commissioner warned that the belief in the need for local decision-making had “not taken root in all member states' administrations”, and she main-tained that this left the CoR with some important challenges. “The initial birth pangs of the Committee of the Regions have been overcome ... (but) its work is not sufficiently known in Liverpool, Lille or Thessalonika,” she said. Without more awareness, she thought it would be difficult for the CoR to push through its demands. “Political recognition will be crucial to any success the Committee has in the political arena. Regions will become more involved if people actually demand this,” said Wulf-Mathies.

BUREAU members supported Commission President Jacques Santer's ideas for 'territorial pacts for employment' and examined their regional implications. The CoR plans to propose selection criteria for eligible regions and cities. German member Rembert Behrendt stressed the enormous diversity within the EU and called for an approach that would allow strategies to vary according to different circumstances. “Employment is very much a local phenomenon,” said Maragall. Behrendt added that although it was important to adopt a decentralised approach to employment creation, this should not be an excuse to pass the buck. The European Commission should openly support a large role for the Committee of the Regions in implementing employment policy, he argued.