Brussels, 15/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Convention on the Future of Europe would be missing a great opportunity if it did not take the Committee of the Regions into account, said Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock, who had come to the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions on Wednesday afternoon to discuss, among other things, the Commission's work programme 2002. The Committee had earlier planned to discuss the Convention, but the "debate" was limited to a few very short speeches, that First Vice-Chairman Eduardo Zaplana summarised by stressing that the real test would be the meeting of the Convention on 21 and 22 March, during which the Convention would adopt its internal regulations, in the knowledge that the Committee hopes to obtain a role of some consequence.
Answering questions raised by the members of the Committee on whether their opinions are taken into account, Neil Kinnock assured that this was so and that the "consensus" that generally exists "must not allow one to think that the Committee's opinion is not taken into account". He proposed that the Commission's services should state in a text when they take account of a Committee opinion, so that its role would be better noticed. Juan Jose Lucas Gimenez came to present the programme of the Spanish Presidency. He was then to forward to Prime Minister Aznar a letter from the new president of the Committee of the Regions, Albert Bore, on the Barcelona Summit, in which the European Council is called upon to take account of local and regional municipalities in its follow-up of the Lisbon process.
Defining the competences between the Member States and the EU: After the European Parliament had referred back to the Committee for opinion on a draft project (for the first time, the Committee stressed), the Committee requests that "subsidiarity should serve as a reference for redefining the tasks of the Union". The Committee considers that one should review in detail and clarify the sharing of powers. The representative of the local and regional authorities of the EU consider that one should respect the law of each Member State for sharing out the competences within that State, according to its wishes. The Committee is in favour of the idea of giving the regions a status in the Treaty, but considers it must not be left up to the national governments alone to designate the EU "partner regions". The report was drafted by Jos Chabert (EPP, Belgium) and Manfred Dammeyer (PES, Germany), both former presidents of the Committee and members of the Committee's delegation at the Convention.
White Paper on Governance: With the report by Michel Delebarre, Mayor of Dunkirk (France) and leader of the PES Group, the Committee again asks to go beyond its advisory role. In addition to the request made many times to be given institution status and to be able to refer matters to the Court of Justice, the report sets out several concrete proposals. The Committee proposes to draft reports ahead of the publication of European Commission proposals, in order to present the point of view of the regions at this preliminary stage. It also considers that it could examine the local and regional impact of certain directives in order to be able to inform the Commission. Furthermore, the report suggests that the Committee could verify compliance with the principle of subsidiarity.
Cross-border and interregional cooperation: The report by Anton Rombouts (Dutch, EPP) and Markku Kauppinen (ELDR, Finland) calls on Member States to give cross-border cooperation a real legal base, and calls on the European Union to support this process through the adoption of a framework legislation. They hope that this regional policy dimension will be strengthened in the future, and call on the Commission to present a White Paper on the issue within two years.
The new members of the Committee, which was holding its first plenary meeting since the constitutive session in February, adopted a dozen other opinions (see EUROPE of 13 March, p.18).