EU. The Committee of the Regions calls for applicants to take part in its subsidiarity monitoring network
The European Council has just reaffirmed that subsidiarity and proportionality are to be key principles underpinning the reform of the European institutions. With European Council backing, the Committee of the Regions is preparing the ground to ensure that these principles of political governance are applied effectively in practice. The CoR is today calling on the regions, towns and cities – and indeed any other local or regional authority that might be interested – to join the 49 partners already active in the network set up to monitor these political principles.
The mandate given by the recent European Council to the intergovernmental conference tasked with reforming the EU institutions is unequivocal in affirming the importance of the subsidiarity principle. Its conclusions thus meet a formal request made by the Committee of the Regions, which believes that the subsidiarity principle can only shore up democracy and improve policymaking if the four tiers of government are involved: European, national, regional and local.
To help secure more effective application of the subsidiarity and proportionality principles, the Committee of the Regions, in its October 2005 opinion on Better Lawmaking , drawn up by current CoR president Michel Delebarre (FR/PES), decided to establish a network of local and regional authorities.
The network was tested in a pilot phase in 2005/2006. Working within their own political forums, the 49 current partners considered European legislative proposals relating to the environment and education and then fed their views back to the Committee of the Regions and the other network partners.
Now up and running, the CoR subsidiarity monitoring network will, through its website, make it possible for the political bodies of local and regional authorities - which are responsible for implementing 70% of European legislation - to receive European Commission legislative proposals directly and to make their voices heard more effectively.
As Michel Delebarre has said, "Europe is being built in the regions and towns, which, thanks to the subsidiarity monitoring network, will be able to make a real contribution to the European debate and thus boost the legitimacy of European politics in our citizens' eyes."
Among other things, the network:
* gives local and regional authorities – and their political bodies (assemblies, executives, associations, etc.) – scope to conduct political debates about the European Union and EU proposals;
* facilitates input into the political work of the Committee of the Regions;
* provides a forum for exchanging views between the network partners, the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission; and
* helps give practical shape to the application of the subsidiarity principle.
Network partners
Each year, the Committee Bureau will work with the European Commission to identify priority issues (The issues selected in 2007 are: public health (white paper on health strategy); employment and immigration (framework directive on the immigration of workers, directive on the conditions of entry and residence of highly skilled workers); and the energy policy for Europe (package for the completion of the internal electricity and gas market)) for submission to the subsidiarity monitoring network. The network consultations will be launched a few weeks after the documents are published by the European Commission.
The following will be eligible to become network partners: political bodies of local and regional authorities; regional governments and parliaments with or without legislative powers; councils of large metropolitan areas or medium-sized towns; associations of local and regional authorities; or even national parliaments. The CoR Bureau will consider applications two or three times a year (Criteria: coverage of as many Member States as possible; balance between regional and local authorities; balance between "old" and "new" Member States; balance between centralised states, regionalised states and federal states; balance between political groupings; openness to regional and national parliaments; the applicant's administrative capacity.)
Current network partners:
http://www.cor.europa.eu/en/activities/sub_net.htm
The mandate given by the recent European Council to the intergovernmental conference tasked with reforming the EU institutions is unequivocal in affirming the importance of the subsidiarity principle. Its conclusions thus meet a formal request made by the Committee of the Regions, which believes that the subsidiarity principle can only shore up democracy and improve policymaking if the four tiers of government are involved: European, national, regional and local.
To help secure more effective application of the subsidiarity and proportionality principles, the Committee of the Regions, in its October 2005 opinion on Better Lawmaking , drawn up by current CoR president Michel Delebarre (FR/PES), decided to establish a network of local and regional authorities.
The network was tested in a pilot phase in 2005/2006. Working within their own political forums, the 49 current partners considered European legislative proposals relating to the environment and education and then fed their views back to the Committee of the Regions and the other network partners.
Now up and running, the CoR subsidiarity monitoring network will, through its website, make it possible for the political bodies of local and regional authorities - which are responsible for implementing 70% of European legislation - to receive European Commission legislative proposals directly and to make their voices heard more effectively.
As Michel Delebarre has said, "Europe is being built in the regions and towns, which, thanks to the subsidiarity monitoring network, will be able to make a real contribution to the European debate and thus boost the legitimacy of European politics in our citizens' eyes."
Among other things, the network:
* gives local and regional authorities – and their political bodies (assemblies, executives, associations, etc.) – scope to conduct political debates about the European Union and EU proposals;
* facilitates input into the political work of the Committee of the Regions;
* provides a forum for exchanging views between the network partners, the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission; and
* helps give practical shape to the application of the subsidiarity principle.
Network partners
Each year, the Committee Bureau will work with the European Commission to identify priority issues (The issues selected in 2007 are: public health (white paper on health strategy); employment and immigration (framework directive on the immigration of workers, directive on the conditions of entry and residence of highly skilled workers); and the energy policy for Europe (package for the completion of the internal electricity and gas market)) for submission to the subsidiarity monitoring network. The network consultations will be launched a few weeks after the documents are published by the European Commission.
The following will be eligible to become network partners: political bodies of local and regional authorities; regional governments and parliaments with or without legislative powers; councils of large metropolitan areas or medium-sized towns; associations of local and regional authorities; or even national parliaments. The CoR Bureau will consider applications two or three times a year (Criteria: coverage of as many Member States as possible; balance between regional and local authorities; balance between "old" and "new" Member States; balance between centralised states, regionalised states and federal states; balance between political groupings; openness to regional and national parliaments; the applicant's administrative capacity.)
Current network partners:
http://www.cor.europa.eu/en/activities/sub_net.htm
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