The Committee of the Regions: Empowering Local and Regional Government in the EU

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Key dates • 1993Maastricht Treaty creates the CoR • 1994First Plenary Session held in Brussels • 1995 The number of CoR members increases from 189 to 222 as the EU-12 expands to EU-15 • 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam strengthens the CoR by increasing its field of mandatory consultation and allows referrals from the European Parliament • 2003 Treaty of Nice states CoR members must hold an electoral mandate or be politically accountable • 2004 The number of CoR members increases from 222 to 317 in the EU-25 • 2007 The number of CoR members increases from 317 to 344 members • in the EU-27 • 2009 Lisbon Treaty enhances the status and political role of the CoR

5. 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.

6. CONSULTATION CODECISION PROPOSAL DECISION European Commission European Parliament Council of the EU CONSULTATION European Economic & Social Committee

7. 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

8. 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………………………………………….…………...…….….... 24 21 15 12 9 7 6 5 • 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

10. Organisation of the Committee of the Regions The President The Bureau President’s private office Secretary-General Secretariats of the Political Groups Internal Audit unit Secretary-General’s private office Administration Consultative work Communication, press, events Horizontal policies and networks Services for members and Registry Coordination, follow-up, etc. Press, internal and external communic. Forward planning, studies, etc. Budget, finance Legal service NAT+ENVE commissions Events, Forums, OPEN DAYS Networks, monitoring platforms Recruitment, career Internal services ECOS+COTER commissions Administration, budget, publications ARLEM, decentralised coop. Working conditions, rights, training Registry, members, nat. delegations, etc. EDUC+CIVEX commissions General administration Joint services Logistics Joint services Translation

11. The Bureau • 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.

12. 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

13. The Political Groups EA ALDE NON-ALIGNED EPP PES EPP European People‘s Party PES Party of European Socialists ALDE Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe EA European Alliance

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. The CoR’s political priorities in 2012 Multiannual Financial Framework2014-2020 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”