Why a Committee of the Regions ?

To give local and regional government a say over the drafting of EU legislation (70% of EU laws are implemented at local/regional level).

To bring Europe closer to its citizens and to encourage a culture of subsidiarity.

To provide a meeting place where regions and cities can share best practice and take part in a dialogue with the European institutions.

The Committee of the Regions

A political assembly of the European Union representing local and regional authorities

• Created by the Maastricht Treaty (1993)

• 344 Members (Regional and local representatives)

• First Plenary held in March 1994

• Six Plenary Sessions per year

• Six thematic Commissions and one Commission on budget & administration

• 27 national delegations

• Four Political Groups

Key dates

• 19931993 Maastricht Treaty creates the CoR

• 19941994 First Plenary Session held in Brussels

• 19951995 The number of CoR members increases from 189 to 222 as the EU-12 expands to EU-15

• 19971997 Treaty of Amsterdam strengthens the CoR by increasing its field of mandatory consultation and allows referrals from the European Parliament

• 20032003 Treaty of Nice states CoR members must hold an electoral mandate or be politically accountable

• 20042004 The number of CoR members increases from 222 to 317 in the EU-25

• 20072007 The number of CoR members increases from 317 to 344 members in the EU-27

• 20092009 Lisbon Treaty enhances the status and political role of the CoR

The CoR and the Lisbon Treaty

• The Court of Justice has jurisdiction in actions brought by the Committee of the Regions for the purpose of protecting its rights.

• Possibility for the CoR to bring actions on grounds of infringement of the principle of subsidiarity by a legislative act.

• Broadening of its area of consultation.

• Members’ term of office prolonged from 4 to 5 years.

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European Commission European Parliament Council of the EU

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European Economic &Social Committee

Policy fields

Consultation of the Committee of the Regions is mandatory in the following policy areas:

• Economic, social and territorial cohesion

• Education and youth

• Culture

• Public health

• Trans-European networks

• Transport

• Sport

• Employment

• Social affairs

• Environment

• Vocational training

• Energy

• Climate change

CoR members and their appointment

344 members (plus 344 alternates)

Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom………….…………..Poland, Spain…...……………………………………………….....Romania...……………………………………………………….......Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden……………………..Denmark, Ireland, Finland, Slovakia, Lithuania…..……….….Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia……………………..……………….….Cyprus, Luxembourg…….………………….……………….…… Malta………………………………………….…………...…….…....

242115

129765

• Local and regional representatives proposed by Member States• Formally appointed by the Council of the EU• Five-year renewable term of office• Six Plenary Session per year and adoption of about 60 opinions

Organisation of the Committee of the Regions

The President

Secretary-General

Secretary-General’sprivate office

EDUC+CIVEXcommissions

ECOS+COTERcommissions

NAT+ENVEcommissions

Coordination,follow-up, etc.

General administration

Working conditions,rights, training

Recruitment, career

Budget, finance

Registry, members,nat. delegations, etc.

Internal services

Legal service

Administration, budget, publications

Events, Forums,OPEN DAYS

Press, internal andexternal communic.

ARLEM, decentralised coop.

Networks,monitoring platforms

Forward planning,studies, etc.

Administration Services for members and Registry

Consultative workCommunication,

press, eventsHorizontal policies

and networks

Internal Audit unit

Secretariats of thePolitical Groups

President’s private office

The Bureau

Joint servicesTranslation

Joint servicesLogistics

• 60 members, whose number per Member State reflects a national and political balance:

• The President and First Vice-President• One Vice-President per Member State• Four chairs of the political groups• 27 other members.

• Organisation of CoR work:• Meets eight times a year• Prepares the agenda of plenary sessions• Draws up the Committee’s policy programme• Allocates opinions to commissions• Decides on own-initiative opinions.

The Bureau

Why political groups

To enable transnational thinking and acting

To link up the political families in the different EU institutions and in the member states

To implement the CoR’s mandate as political and democratically legitimated organ

The Political Groups

PESPESParty of European Socialists

EAEA European Alliance

EPPEPPEuropean People‘s Party

ALDEALDEAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

PES

ALDEEA

NON-ALIGNED

EPP

Consultative work: CoR opinions on legislative acts

• Planning and preparing CoR opinions (62 in 2011) on EU legislative acts each year for the six CoR commissions

• Involving EU institutions in topical debates

• Organising input by experts and stakeholders (conferences, seminars)

• Following up and monitoring legislative acts and the impact of CoR opinions

The EU budget 2014-2020: The view of regions and cities

End 2012/early 2013, the EU will adopt its new Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. In an opinion of December 2011, the Committee of the Regions declared that the level of financing proposed should be seen as the absolute minimum required to deliver the ambitions the Member States have agreed for the EU in the Treaty and the Europe 2020 strategy. It supported the introduction of a new own resources system including a tax on financial transactions. The CoR has also notably reiterated its strong opposition to any form of macroeconomic conditionality and proposed on the other hand that the

conclusion of a formal   partnership agreement between each Member State and their local and regional authorities be a specific ex ante conditionality to the disbursement of EU structural

funds. 

Communicating the “regional and local Europe”

• Communicating to press/TV and Europe’s 100 000 regional and local government bodies through newsletters, the internet and audiovisual media

• Organising about 200 conferences each year (European Week of Regions and Cities; CoR Summits; EuroPCom; co-organising and hosting about 120 conferences with EU institutions, regional offices, associations) with 20 000 stakeholders

• 600 group visits each year with a total of 16 000 participants

• Producing publications in all EU languages

European Week of Regions and Cities-OPEN DAYS

Since 10 years, the CoR organises together with the European Commission the OPEN DAYS-European Week of Regions and Cities. 200 regional and local authorities, 200 regions and cities, 100 seminars, 5,000 participants, and 600 speakers make the OPEN DAYS the biggest annual event on regional and urban development. In addition, about 250 local events branded ‘Europe in my region/city‘ bring Brussels‘ debates home to an audience of about 30,000 in more than 30 countries.

Horizontal policies, studies, networks

• Monitoring a number of cross-sector priorities and providing medium- and long-term political options.

• Strategic planning of CoR activities.

• Producing 40 studies each year and cooperating with academic networks.

• Networks and Monitoring Platforms on Subsidiarity, Europe 2020, Covenant of Mayors and the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC).

• Supporting the representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), and decentralised development cooperation.

The Europe 2020 strategy: Involving regions and cities

The Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform of the CoR, composed of over 150 regions and cities from all EU Member States, is a tool for local and regional authorities to have a say in the policy process and the implementation of the EU's strategy to promote smart, green and inclusive growth in the current decade. Through meetings of regional and local representatives and experts, consultations and reports, the Platform ensures better implementation of Europe 2020 goals; examines the relationship with cohesion policy, monitors the involvement of strategy's governance process and stimulates exchange.

Visit us at www.cor.europa.eu/europe2020

The CoR’s political priorities in 2012

 Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020

Cohesion policy 2014-2020

Common Agricultural Policy and rural development post-2013

Europe 2020 strategy

Climate change and energy policy

Economic and financial crisis and the “fiscal compact treaty”