Well Connected? On relations between regions and the European Union

The Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) of the Netherlands is an independent body which advises government and parliament on foreign policy, particularly on issues relating to human rights, peace and security, development cooperation and European integration.

The AIV produces advisory reports on its own initiative or at the request of government or parliament. All reports are presented to the relevant members of the government as well as to the House of Representatives and Senate. In most cases, the government members in question are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence and the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. They are expected to send a government response to parliament within three months. The requests for advice, the reports and the government responses are all made public.It has been known for some time that the responsibility for implementing EU legislation largely rests on subnational authorities. The Europeanisation of policy is perceptible at all levels and has been under way for a long time. Regions are no longer secondary players. This trend has been exhaustively described in all the reports listed in the request for advice and, most recently, in the very detailed advisory report of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure. It was also acknowledged by the government and the subnational authorities in the 2008 Local and Central Government Relations Code, which expressly includes an article on the European Union.