The European Committee of the Regions’ (CoR) High Level Group on European Democracy held its first meeting on Wednesday 17 March under the patronage of former European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
The aim of this High Level Group is to feed back the observations and experiences of local and regional authorities into the Conference on the Future of Europe process (see EUROPE 12675/6).
More specifically, the High Level Group will work closely with the members of the CoR and, in particular, the Committee’s Conference of Presidents, the Bureau, the thematic commissions and the members of the Committee's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.
It consists of seven ‘wise men and women’, namely: Herman Van Rompuy, its President; Joaquín Almúnia, former European Commissioner; Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, an academic; Rebecca Harms, former MEP; Silja Markkula, President of the European Youth Forum; Maria João Rodrigues, former Portuguese Minister; and Androulla Vassiliou, former European Commissioner.
The establishment of the group was decided at the Committee’s Bureau meeting last December, and its official launch is scheduled for the CoR’s plenary session on 5-7 May. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)