11/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - After his meeting last Thursday with Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, the Chairman of the Committee of the Regions Enlargement Group, Lord Hanningfield, welcomed the former's encouragement to strengthen the contact established between the Committee of the Regions and the local and regional authorities of candidate countries. All the authorities, without exception, complain of not being kept informed of the consequences of enlargement, he added. The Committee of the Regions continues to organise conferences in the candidate countries, on 3 October in Bucharest and in December in Bulgaria. The Committee will also hold a conference on enlargement on 5 and 6 November in Athens, in the presence of some fifty elected representatives from candidate countries, as well as ministers.