Brussels, 11/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a 20-minute speech to members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) on Wednesday 10 February at the European Parliament, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, highlighted the importance of the role played by the regions in European policies and crisis management. He also affirmed that it was necessary to strengthen regional dialogue, particularly in view of the European Council in March.
In the introduction to his speech on regionalism, the role of the regions in the migration crisis, protecting Schengen and the issue of the “Brexit”, the President of the European Council stated “I have always believed that strong regions show a strong country. The more a country is just about its capital city, especially in cultural and political life, the less healthy it is. Everything that is bad in European history is usually the result of the urge to centralise”.
Regionalism. Quoting Denis de Rougemont, the writer philosopher behind the concept of the “Europe of the regions”, Tusk said that the regions represented the best way of ensuring peace in Europe and the best guarantee for ensuring security and order. Nonetheless he does consider that the separatist movements are a danger to European unity and in this connection referred to the Catalan (see EUROPE 11398), Scottish (see EUROPE 11158) and, to a lesser extent, Flemish separatists. Tusk advocates the contrary and for whom, “real regionalism is a strong antidote to nationalism and separatism”.
Migration crisis. On the question of the migration crisis, Tusk acknowledged the crucial role played by the regions and local communities, which were in the front line when it came to the management of these migratory flows. In his eyes, the local and regional authorities can sometimes provide a more efficient response to asylum seekers than central governments and international organisations, if they receive adequate support from the member states. On this point, he was questioned by an Enrico Rossi, the president of the Italian Region of Tuscany, who asked the former to request that the European Commission carry out a study in to what costs would be generated if the Schengen area collapsed.
Brexit. The question of the “Brexit” took up a large part of the speech by the President of the European Council. Tusk announced that he would be cancelling his commitments over the next two weeks, in view of exclusively concentrating on this issue and promoting his proposal (see EUROPE 11484) ahead of the European Council on 18 February. He will therefore be meeting the Belgian Prime Minister and MEPs this week, followed by a meeting with the French President, German Chancellor, Greek Prime Minister, the respective Presidents of Romania and the Czech Republic. The latter is also the head of the Visegrad Group. Expressing concern about the state of Britain's current view on Europe, the President of the European Council explained that one of the dangers of the referendum on the Brexit was that it could be taken up by other member states that are tempted to mark out their independence from the Union.
Regional dialogue. According to Tusk, “civilisations die by committing suicide and not by assassination”. This, he believes, is good news because it means that we “have the card in our hands”. Moreover, the pessimism reigning at the Council prevents a solution being found to the current crises and that member states should stop “escaping their responsibility”. In this regard, he considers it crucial to reinforce regional dialogue within the framework of the European Council, together with the local and regional authorities, which he concluded with Markku Markkula, the President of the CoR, last November. This is excellent news for the President of the CoR, who is promoting the concept of a “better Europe” that strengthens the subsidiarity principle, particularly within the elaboration of the Council's conclusions. Markkula asked whether there was a clear reference to subsidiarity in the conclusions of the next summit on the “Draft EU Reform Proposals on Subsidiarity”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)