July 03, 2010

Barroso urged to deliver territorial aspects of Lisbon Treaty


At the instigation of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), European Commission President JosE Manuel Barroso met with high-ranking political representatives of the main European associations of regional and local authorities on 29 June. The initiative was organised to impress upon the Commission the need for key EU reform measures to pay more than lip service to the enhanced role given to the local and regional levels by the Lisbon Treaty's strengthened recognition of territorial cohesion and multi-level governance arrangements.

The discussion gathered together the Presidents of seven pan-European regional associations who collectively set out the case that successfully delivering the Europe 2020 Strategy, reform of the EU budget, and a renewed Cohesion Policy depends greatly on first taking account of the territorial impact of new policy-making. This, they argue, is necessary in order to adequately reflect the experiences and perspectives of regions and cities in a coherent and ongoing manner.

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This follows upon a campaign by the CoR to gain fuller recognition and influence on foot of the treaty granting it enhanced powers as a consultative body with the right to contribute the voice of local level practitioners to EU policy-making across a widened range of fields. In response, the Commission has recently announced its intention to increase the CoR's involvement in the EU's legislative process beyond even that foreseen as obligatory by Lisbon. This will now entail the local and regional perspective being formally sought as input to an additional 86 legislative initiatives scheduled for progress over the remainder of this year. As well as employment, enterprise, internal market and environment, the proposals include a series of issues such as data protection, children's rights, and the fight against racism.

Recent negotiations between the Commissioner for Interinstitutional Relations Maros Sefcovic, and CoR President Merceded Bresso have also opened the door to a formalised revision of the working arrangements between these two bodies. Crucially, this includes a possible extension of the scope of impact assessments carried out by the Commission ahead of legislative proposals in order to take account of territorial cohesion. This is seen as one of the CoR's key battle lines.

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Posted by iroronan at July 3, 2010 06:43 PM