Brussels, 02/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - Commenting on the ideas that Joschka Fischer launched in Berlin, the president of the Assembly of the Regions of Europe, Luc Van den Brande said: "Yes to the concept of a European federation (…), but his proposals seem, voluntarily or involuntarily, to overlook the regional level, and that despite the interesting proposals of his political family in the matter". The region is one of the political entities closest to the citizen, and the Europe of citizens championed by Mr. Fischer "already exists and manifests itself fully in a number of concrete projects, like twinning and inter-regional networks", he states, thus demanding that the regions be represented adequately in European institutions, "in view of directly participating in European governance". Regarding the bicameral system as proposed by Mr. Fischer, Mr. Van den Brande recalls that, at its meeting in Stuttgart on 5 May, the Political Bureau of the ARE had come down in favour of the creation of a "genuine chamber of the regions at European level".