In these troubled times of crisis, when confidence in public institutions is decreasing and there is a tendency for everyone to focus efforts on their own communities, regions have to be the leaders for change. The end goal of regional authorities must always primarily be to make their territory the best possible place to live for their citizens. To this end, they need to improve the services they deliver to the people in order to keep their trust. The AER’s mission is to address regional political concerns and foster leadership excellence, in order to provide services for better decision-making and offering visibility to regions in Europe. The objective is to make regions a driving force for political, economic and social development, with a view to accomplishing a multi-player Europe. Our guiding principle is subsidiarity. To this end, the AER fosters interregional cooperation: this means working together on common projects, sharing and transferring best practices and learn new methods and ideas to enrich regional policies. The AER must be a driving force in the field of governance, territorial reform and (re)definition of regions’ competences, building on the experience of its members and on its guiding principles. An example of this is the lobbying work carried out by the AER towards the main European institutions, aiming to integrate a territorial dimension into the centre of all policies designed at the European and international level. In accordance with its mission, decentralisation, youth and equal opportunities, remain key transversal issues that are an integral part of the AER DNA.

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