Brussels, 05/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The minister-presidents of the regions of Catalonia, Scotland, Flanders, Wallonia and Salzburg and the European and Federal Affairs Ministers of Bavaria and North-Rhine Westphalia last week signed, in Brussels, a declaration that they presented to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (with a view to the Laeken summit) and to European Commissioner Michel Barnier. In the declaration they stress that these "constitutional" regions have a specific interest in the debate on the future of Europe.
These "regions" demand to participate directly in the preparatory work of the 2004 IGC, and mainly state that: - they wish to hold a discussion covering more than the four themes listed in the Nice Declaration on the future of Europe, and request that another theme be added on "the role and the setting of the regions in the European policy-making process and the institutional framework"; - the principle of subsidiarity must be the basis for the debate on the "key tasks" of the European Union, a Union that must act only in so far as aims cannot be sufficiently reached at the regional or national levels; - EU missions must therefore be carefully considered in the light of this principle, and redefined through a clearer allocation of powers.