Brussels, 23/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions made use of the last plenary session under the current term of office, last week, to spell out its expectations for the next round of institutional reform, calling for the role of the Committee of the Regions to be strengthened in the EU decision-making process. The next meeting will be held at the beginning of next year, with a new Assembly.
Adopting the report by Edmund Stoiber (President of CSU in Bavaria) into institutional reform, the COR called for the next IGC to not be limited to sorting out the questions left over from Nice, but to be prepared to consider the transfer of new powers (and the withdrawal of powers). The COR wants its representatives to be full members of the Convention paving the way for the IGC, again stressing that it wants to move beyond its consultative role and be given the status of an institution.
In a report by Luc Van den Brande (EPP, Belgium), the COR acknowledged that it also had to think about ways of improving its own performance - simplifying the procedure for issuing opinions, the expectations of its members (regional and local representatives) and signing co-operation agreements with the European Parliament.
In a report by Claudio Martini (PES, Italy) and Franz Schausberger (EPP, Austria), the COR calls for regional representatives to take a direct part in the activities of the Council as members of the national delegations, in cases involving regional competencies, and for the Committee of the Regions to be involved in informal Council meetings.
In terms of the report on the cohesion and future of regional policy, the COR is calling for a more generous policy, rejecting the 0.45% ceiling set at the Berlin Summit (in 1999) for funding cohesion policies, arguing that the regions that in the absence of enlargement would have been eligible for Objective 1 funding after 2006 have to remain eligible in an enlarged Europe.
The COR adopted thirty or so opinions on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy, the BSE crisis, equal opportunities between men and women, the European Research Area, EU activities to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises, cybercrime, the energy efficiency of buildings and the Common Agricultural Policy in the run-up to enlargement, etc.