Brussels, 04/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker came to the Committee of the Regions (CoR) on Thursday 4 June to present his investment plan but it was the issue of the treatment reserved for local authority associations in the transparency register that was raised by the elected representatives present.
Article 17 of the inter-institutional agreement concluded in September 2014 between the European Parliament and the European Commission seems to be at the heart of representatives' concerns and was highlighted by several CoR members and by Committee President Markku Markkula. The effect of this article would be to place the associations representing local authorities on an equal footing with those representing civil society, in requiring them to join the transparency register.
“I have asked commissioners to provide information on the kinds of discussions they have. Now, you are elected representatives. You represent the active, buoyant part of local and regional democracy. … The Commission will never consider representatives of local and regional authorities to be lobbyists”, reassured Juncker, looking drawn after the night of negotiations with Greece.
Apart from this area of contention, the Commission investment plan as a whole was given virtually unanimous support in the chamber. Repeating his campaign slogan, “We need to be big on big issues and small on small issues”, Juncker reiterated his commitment to the principle of subsidiarity. “It was a mistake to believe that all of Europe's problems could be dealt with at EU level”, he said, going on to stress the importance of local and regional authorities to the sound application of European legislation and, in particular, to the success of his investment plan. “We are very happy to work with the Commission in achieving your priorities”, stated the CoR president (our translation throughout). (Pascal Hansens)