On Tuesday 11 June, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) published its outline for “renewing the European Union”, with a view to further anchoring European policies at the local level, particularly in the social arena, the fight against climate change, research and innovation, digital technology, industry, trade and migration.
“The EU must become more visible, effective and responsive to citizens' needs by changing the way it works”, said CoR President Karl-Heinz Lambertz, who reiterated that this means “empowering and engaging the one million elected local and regional politicians”.
Thus, the document sets out three main principles drawn from the conclusions of the working party on subsidiarity (see EUROPE 12112/8), beginning with “active subsidiarity” to strengthen the participation of local and regional authorities and national parliaments in European decision-making, improving multi-level governance and establishing a “permanent” dialogue between the Union and European citizens (see EUROPE 12215/23).
Above all, the Committee of the Regions is putting forward a whole series of proposals, some of which are particularly ambitious, such as the introduction into the European Treaties of a binding social progress protocol - a proposal that is also dear to European trade unions (see EUROPE 12203/28). The Committee also calls for the regionalisation of the social scoreboard for the ‘European Semester’ budget process.
In addition, the organisation proposes the concept of Services of General Economic Interest for the reception of migrants and refugees. On the migration issue, the Committee proposes establishing legal migration channels in order to secure transit routes.
On cohesion policy, the organisation reiterates its positions, particularly its rejection of macroeconomic conditionalities for cohesion policy. The Committee proposes setting up a support system for coal mining regions in transition.
In addition, regions and cities are calling for the development of an “effective” mechanism to ensure the strengthening of respect for fundamental rights among Member States.
This is a non-exhaustive list. To consult the entire document: https://bit.ly/2IajoI6 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)