Luxembourg, 02/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the 162nd meeting of the Committee of Regions Office on Wednesday 2 September in Luxembourg, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) held a lively debate on a project that seeks to facilitate cross-border cooperation.
Camille Gira, the Luxembourg secretary of state for sustainable development and infrastructure, stated: “With regard to cross-border issues, we consider it necessary to develop instruments that help cross-border cooperation and create specific legal provisions in border areas that help promote concrete projects or strategies that would be impossible to undertake under different legal systems”.
The Luxembourg Presidency would like the European Commission to put forward a legislative draft in the shape of a regulation or directive that would enable the regions' local authorities to define the rules and “call on their respective states for a derogation to utilise specific provisions for a certain period… Which would, in principle, be a derogation of one of the two states in cooperation”.
In concrete terms, this would mean that in the context of a cross-border water purification station built between a local authority in Luxembourg and its counterpart in Belgium, the local authority in Belgium would be able to request a derogation from the Belgian federal state in view of applying Luxembourg standards within the parameters of the specific project in question, explained the adviser to the Luxembourg government in European and international affairs, Jean-Claude Sinner, to EUROPE.
According to the latter, such a procedure would help to significantly speed up implementation of cross-border projects without having to change at national level standards. The derogation would only affect strictly framed geographical zones and projects. The specific legal provision would not confer new powers of approximation on the local authorities or create new standards but would specifically utilise the standards of the cooperating country, explained Sinner. He also added that the sovereignty of the member states would not be encroached upon because it would be up to the state to either grant or reject the derogation in question.
For the time being, there has only been a note distributed during the different confidential seminars in this respect and the question has not yet been debated at a member state level. One representative from the Luxembourg delegation explained that “the response to this has been mixed, particularly among Eastern European member state countries”. Karl-Heinz Lambertz, the 1st vice-president of the Committee of the Regions, affirmed “I support the Luxembourg project but the Luxembourg presidency must clarify it because a lot of people are finding it difficult to distinguish between this project and the EGCC”. Many members of the Committee are wary about the project and would prefer to improve the provisions that already exist, such as the European Group for Cross-Border Cooperation (EGCC).
Nonetheless, Sinner believes that the Luxembourg project would be nothing like the EGCC set up in 2007 (Regulation 1082/2006 amending Regulation 1302/2013) and explained that this sought to bring together inter-regional dialogues and increase their fluidity, without granting the power to introduce new standards or legislation. Luxembourg is, however, of the opinion that it would be necessary to set up an EGCC as a preliminary before being able to request a derogation.
Gira indicated that “we will be putting the idea up for discussion among the interested parties but nothing has as yet been decided at this stage”. The question will be more broadly debated during the Open Days event from 12-15 October.
One member of the Committee of the Regions had a number of misgivings about it and explained to
EUROPE that the project had little chance of being carried through given the existing tensions between member states and concluded “we may be able to discuss it seriously once the European Commission has put forward a proposal”.
During the conclusions to the debates, the President of the Luxembourg delegation at the Committee of the Regions, Marc Schaeffer, expressed surprise at the negative reaction of certain members on the Committee. (Pascal Hansens)