Comité van de Regio's: "De beste overheden opereren dicht bij de bevolking" (en)

On 8 November, the President of the Committee of the Regions, Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, addressed the Lombardy Regional Assembly in a meeting in Milan, Italy. Speaking to an audience made up of members of the Italian regional parliament, President Valcárcel focused on the importance of the role they are playing in monitoring compliance with the principle of subsidiarity in the European legislative process.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) is one of the guarantors of the so-called "subsidiarity principle" which ensures that the EU only intervenes in those areas which fall exclusively within its remit, unless taking action would add extra value compared with the measures adopted at national, regional or local level. This acknowledgement is set out in the Lisbon Treaty. According to the treaty the CoR may also raise a case with the European Court of Justice if it deems that the subsidiarity principle has been or may be violated.

Speaking to the Italian regional parliament, Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso stated that these prerogatives "open the way for regional parliaments to be heard in the evaluation phase of European legislation". He also underlined the need for "strengthening the role of the CoR". To do this, President Valcárcel believes it is essential to increase "the number of regional representatives in the CoR to ensure our voices are heard in the Council, the EU and the European Parliament". In this respect, Mr Valcárcel Siso referred to the initiatives for assessing and monitoring the subsidiarity principle, such as the Subsidiarity Monitoring Network and the REGPEX platform being implemented by the COR.

Finally, the CoR President reiterated his rejection of the possibility that: "the Structural Funds might be suspended if central governments fail to implement the Stability and Growth Pact". He emphasised that the CoR was "looking into the possibility of raising a case with the Court of Justice for breach of the subsidiarity principle" if macroeconomic conditionality were to continue. As he announced on 29 October, following the agreement reached by the EU Council's Group of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), President Valcárcel considers that: "suspending payments to regions would not be justifiable, given that the responsibility should fall on national public budgets".

The meeting of the Lombardy Regional Assembly, presided by Raffaele Cattaneo (IT/EPP), focused on the fundamental legislative role of the European regional parliaments. The event, entitled "For a Europe of the people and regions", was also attended by members of the Italian national Parliament and the European Parliament.