Brussels, 15/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - During its plenary session of 9 October, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) unanimously adopted its opinion to be submitted to the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), in which it calls upon the Heads of State and Government to accept the Convention's draft European Treaty as a basis for negotiations.
The plenary assembly confirmed the approach as recommended by both rapporteurs, the Committee's President and Vice-President, Albert Bore (PES, leader of the municipal council of Birmingham, United Kingdom) and Reinhold Bocklet (EPP, Minister for Federal and European Affairs for the Land of Bavaria, Germany), who centred their requests on several points aiming at reinforcing the constitutional recognition of regional and local authorities in the Union, as laid down in the draft Constitution, without modifying the institutional balance reached by the Convention members. They recommend the strengthening of the current consultative function of the Committee of the Regions and the extension of the fields of obligatory consultation, recognition for its role in the principles of representative democracy, and guaranteeing the right for regional Ministers to attend meetings of the Council of Ministers.
During a press conference, Reinhold Bocklet criticised the abandoning of a Legislative Council, which could have been a way for the regions with legislative competency to get involved in the process of drafting European standards. The Committee of the Regions is also calling for greater coherence between the Union's objectives and some of its policies which were not revised by the European Convention, and the creation of a legal basis for cross-border and inter-regional co-operation and a framework for financial support for town-twinning.