Brussels, 02/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - “The role of the regional parliaments with legislative powers and regional assemblies in the democratic life of the Union” is the theme of the public hearing on 3 March in Brussels at the committee of constitutional affairs and European governance of the Committee of the Regions (COR).
Discussions will focus on: 1) the ratification process for the constitutional treaty: what implications for regional parliaments and assemblies with legislative powers? The president of the constitutional affairs committee at the EP Jo Leinen (PES, Germany) will chair this first debate on: the state of progress in the ratification process in Member States; involvement of regional parliaments and assemblies in the process; possible guidelines for a strategy for regional parliaments and assemblies to guarantee ratification; 2) the constitutional mechanism for applying and inspecting the subsidiarity principle: a new role for regional parliaments and assemblies with legislative powers. This debate will take place under the presidency of the president of the constitutional affairs and European governance of the COR, Franz Schausberger (EPP, Austria) and will focus on: internal structures and methods for regional parliaments; the association of regional parliaments in national level preparations, notably that of the national parliaments; forms of possible cooperation between regional parliaments and the COR.
Luc Van den Brande (EPP, Belgium), COR rapporteur on the “Role of Regional Parliaments with Legislative Powers in the Democratic Life of the Union”, will present this draft recommendation which should be adopted on 222 April at the committee. In his recommendation, Luc Van den Brande outlines: the creation of an information exchange network for strengthening dialogue with the regional parliaments with legislative powers; it also calls on these regional parliaments to regularly update a directory that identifies responsibilities given by national constitutions to the regions concerning EU policies with significant local or regional impact, and in the fields of mandatory CoR consultation; recommends setting up a subsidiarity monitoring network with regional parliaments with legislative powers, allowing the latter to submit proposals to the CoR for instituting proceedings at the Court of Justice for violations of the subsidiarity principle.
In the morning of 3 March, CoR's constitutional affairs and European governance committee will discuss four draft recommendations on: 1) the application of controls on the subsidiary and proportionality principle (rapporteur: Peter Straub, EPP, Germany); 2) the state of the process of decentralisation in the enlarged Union and the place of local and regional self-government in the Constitutional Treaty ( José Maria Munoa Ganuza, ELDR, Spain); 3) The area of freedom, security and justice (Risto Koivisto, PES, Finland); 4) 4th report on citizenship of the EU and the communication on the future Agency for Fundamental Rights (Claude du Granrut, EPP, France). (Info: dennis.abbott@cor.eu.int).