Bijeenkomst van Europese ministers over voorstelen van het Comité van de Regio's (en)

Malaga/Brussels, 17 March 2010

Malaga ministerial focuses on Committee of the Regions' EU governance proposals

For the first time in EU history, national ministers in charge of territorial policies dedicated a meeting to multilevel governance. Committee of the Regions (CoR) proposals on how to involve cities and regions in European policymaking took centre stage at this informal ministerial meeting organised by the Spanish EU presidency in Malaga today. Michel Delebarre (FR/PES), mayor of Dunkirk and co-rapporteur of the CoR on multilevel governance, joined national ministers to present the requests of Europe's regional and local authorities.

Michel Delebarre, who was elected chairman of the Committee of the Regions' Commission for territorial cohesion (COTER) in February, welcomed the initiative taken by the Spanish presidency to organise this first ministerial meeting dedicated to territorial policy and multilevel governance issues: "We are counting on the other presidencies of the trio - the Belgian one and the Hungarian one - to mainstream the issue of governance in the Community agenda and pave the way for its practical implementation. The European Parliament is also looking at the issue. The ball will thus soon be in the Commission's court. The moment of truth is near: this will be the territorial expression of the Europe 2020 strategy."

One concrete example given by Delebarre of the implementation of multilevel governance is the requirement for more comprehensive territorial impact studies, a long-standing CoR request. He cited the proposal for cross-border health services: "If the Commission had prepared its proposal with an assessment of the territorial impact of a directive on public health services, which are often run by local and regional authorities, an amended proposal might perhaps not have met so much opposition and been blocked at the Council. Such an assessment would have helped oil the wheels of the process without creating a disproportionate bureaucratic burden."

Committee of the Regions proposals on multilevel governance

The Spanish presidency had based a large part of its preparatory work for this meeting on the Committee of the Regions' 2009 White Paper on multilevel governance. Delebarre, who co-authored the White Paper with the then CoR President Luc Van den Brande (BE/EPP), presented its main conclusions to the attending ministers. The White Paper calls for an "EU charter of multilevel governance" and requests that all EU proposals should be accompanied by an analysis of their local and regional impact. It also recommends that each major EU policy reform should include an action plan, setting out the political mechanisms to facilitate the territorial ownership, implementation and evaluation of the policies adopted. It also suggests the creation of European "territorial pacts" between the different competent levels of government in order to jointly implement the major political priorities and objectives of the European Union in partnership with local and regional authorities.

Better cooperation will improve decision-making process, not overcomplicate it

Michel Delebarre underlined that such closer cooperation between the local, regional, national and EU levels will strengthen the decision-making process and lead to better laws. He concluded that: "Multilevel governance must lead to political and institutional cooperation at multiple levels. To achieve this, the CoR calls for a new culture of interinstitutional cooperation based on reciprocal loyalty between all levels of power and among the institutions to achieve common goals. The institutional framework that exists today is fundamental to good governance, but is not sufficient to guarantee it. Conversely, good cooperation between different levels of political power and the institutions is essential; such cooperation must be based on trust and not on confrontation between various levels of political and democratic legitimacy."

Visit the CoR's website: www.cor.europa.eu

The Committee of the Regions

The Committee of the Regions is the EU's assembly of regional and local representatives. The mission of its 344 members from all 27 EU Member States is to involve regional and local authorities and the communities they represent in the EU's decision-making process and to inform them about EU policies. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council are obliged to consult the Committee in policy areas affecting regions and cities. It can appeal to the EU Court of Justice if its rights are infringed or it believes that an EU law violates the subsidiarity principle or fails to respect regional or local powers.