In the framework of our 30th Anniversary, Mr Lambert van Nistelrooij, a Dutch politician, an MEP and a former vice-president of AER, joined us in the New Europe Studios on 3 April in order to discuss the regional future of Europe.

Mr van Nistelrooij explains the importance of presence of both AER and the Committee of the Regions by looking back to the history of their creation. He underlines that “the Assembly of European Regions is free to move, they can take they own subjects like initiatives, they can take all initiatives in lobbying and they do to the parliament” and that, due to member regions outside of the EU, AER “has even a broader agenda than the Committee of the Regions”.

Mr van Nistelrooij also mentions that in the face of current migration and terrorist related questions AER “has a big task to develop new types of programs, to bring policy ideas to our decision making bodies like the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions”.

Concerning the regional future of Europe, he seems to see the strength in regions and he underlines the importance of subsidiarity as one of the main principles of the European Project.