New-look CoR comes into its own

Date: 26/03/1998

By Myles Neligan

THE Committee of the Regions is slowly but surely carving out a niche for itself in the EU institutional framework.

In many ways, this constitutes a comeback of Clintonesque proportions.

When the CoR was set up in 1994 under the terms of the Maastricht Treaty as a consultative body to ensure that Europe's regions had some input in EU decision-making, it was widely seen as an irrelevant talking-shop foisted on the EU as a result of Germany's obsession with regional representation.

Talk of the body eventually assuming the role of a second parliamentary chamber was laughed off by its many critics, who argued that its 222 members were too deeply involved in the politics of their respective regions to form a consensus on any meaningful issue.

Progress was also hampered by the fledgling body's limited mandate under the treaty. With an annual budget of just 60 million ecu, the Committee had to share translation and secretarial services with its sister organisation, the Economic and Social Committee.

The CoR then shot itself in the foot by becoming embroiled in a highly damaging recruitment scandal, prompting widespread allegations of cronyism.

The Committee's own staff began a high-profile protest campaign, culminating in a heavily policed picket of the body's plenary session in October 1995.

Although new CoR President Manfred Dammeyer has now put its house in order, the affair continues to rankle.

"The undoubted importance of the CoR in the institutional set-up has been compromised by its poor handling of the dispute over appointments. The whole episode was a public relations disaster," says one source.

But with this shaky start behind it, the CoR is now entering a period of resurgence.

The 1997 Amsterdam Treaty significantly reinforced its consultative role and guaranteed its administrative independence.

"When the Amsterdam Treaty is ratified, the European Parliament will be required to consult us in all areas falling under our competence. It will also allow us to disengage fully from the Economic and Social Committee and set up our own administrative support staff," explains a CoR spokesman.

The body hopes that its tireless lobbying will eventually persuade Union heads of government to grant it the status of a full institution, with the right to defend itself before the European Court of Justice.

More importantly, as the EU enters the final phase of economic and monetary union and contemplates a profound shake-up of its regional funding arrangements, the Committee is coming into its own as the only effective link between the Union's decision-makers and the regions. "The CoR is the only Brussels-based body with enough influence in the regions to ensure that ordinary citizens are kept abreast of these momentous changes," says a Committee official, who cites the exhibition which is to be held in Brussels at the end of May as an example on the CoR's numerous public information campaigns on essential aspects of Union policy.

Moreover, the importance of this link with Europe's grassroots is becoming more widely acknowledged.

Eneko Landaburu, head of the Commission's Directorate-General for regional affairs (DGXVI), said recently: "The strength of the CoR lies in its exceptional democratic legitimacy. Many countries have a legislative assembly representing the regions. I would see nothing anomalous in the EU adopting a similar arrangement."