Brussels, 13/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - New forms of governance, the European Charter for regional autonomy and education through information technologies are among the main points on the agenda of the 36th sitting of the Committee of the Regions, to be held on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 December in Brussels. The Committee will also adopt opinions on very outlying regions (Rapporteur Antoine Karam, from the Guyana Regional Council), rural tourism (Reinhold Bocklet, Minister of State for Bavaria for European Affairs), the Commission action plan for energy efficiency (Annette McNamara, of the Cork County Council), and "innovative action" by the Commission for regions in the new economy (Sean O'Neachtain, from Galway County Council).
On Thursday morning, the Committee will welcome Commissioner Viviane Reding, who will attend debates on opinions pertaining to the European education and cultural policies.
President Chabert considers the results of Nice "do nothing to bring Europe closer to its citizens"
"Despite the progress made on enlargement, the Treaty of Nice falls short of COR expectations: overall, the decisions taken do nothing to bring Europe closer to its citizens". These are the words of Committee of the Regions President Jos Chabert. The president laments the failure to make adequate progress on extending qualified majority voting and the complexity of the new majority voting arrangements within the Council. "Sadly, we can't say that Europe will work better after Nice since too many issues still require unanimity".
That said, the COR president is pleased about a number of points in the new Treaty, not least the requirement that Committee of the Regions members hold an elected mandate at local or regional level, and the increase in Committee membership to reflect enlargement. Mr Chabert is also happy about the undertaking to clarify the remit of the various tiers of government at the 2004 intergovernmental conference, adding "It's about time ordinary citizens knew exactly who is responsible for what in the European decision-making process".
Finally, the Committee of the Regions will be pressing to be given fully-fledged institutional status and access to the European Court of Justice at the 2004 IGC, while maintaining closer compliance with the subsidiarity principle as its top priority.