Stockholm, 05/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - During its meeting in Stockholm last week, the Party of European Socialists group at the Committee of the Regions insisted on the role that may be played by local and regional authorities in the future institutional architecture of the EU. On this occasion, the president of the PES group, Albert Bore, Mayor of Birmingham, asked for the European Council of Laeken to explicitly provide for the possibility of a presence of regional and local authorities in the future Convention that will be preparing the next revision of the treaties. He was warmly supported by Manfred Dammeyer, Chair of the Committee's institutional committee, and by Claudio Martini, President of the region of Tuscany. The group was pleased to note that the future Belgian Presidency has included in its priorities the role of the regions with legislative powers. The Mayor of Dunkirk, Michel Delabarre, rapporteur of the Committee on new forms of governance, felt it was not surprising that the Committee hopes to go beyond its current status as an advisory body, given that the local and regional authorities "very largely - financially and administratively - assume implementation of Community law", as a press release states.