The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe, gathering regions from 35 countries – from Norway to Turkey and from Georgia to Portugal.
AER is present everywhere on the European continent, inside and outside the European Union.
Making our diversity your strength
AER is the place to be for regional stakeholders across the European continent: politicians, officers, experts, advisors… We stand strong to promote a Europe that embraces its diversity to thrive in a global world.
With member regions from 30 countries, AER is the voice of regional authorities since 1985 and has played a pivotal role in recognising regions as key players in the European construction.
We believe that a prosperous, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual Europe goes hand in hand with prosperous regions. We support our members to improve their policies by exchanging experiences, sharing practices and providing capacity building. We pride ourselves in our bottom-up approach and strive to always be concrete in our activities and actions to make a difference.
Built on members
AER member regions are the cornerstone of the organisation. We rely on the involvement of our members, through their politicians and civil servants, to keep the network active and relevant. A lot of our time and resources are spent on understanding the diversity of our members, their needs and ensuring that we provide quality services to their benefit. We have the capacity to bring visibility to individual members and politicians and to promote their work, actions and activities. We measure our success as a network in connecting regions to one another, being their liaison and bridge to interregional cooperation.
Measuring added value
We strive daily to meet the needs of our member regions, improving the quality of our services, our efficiency and cutting back on red-tap and administration for more flexibility. We offer a wide-range of products and services and are aware of the need for regions to justify their membership in networks like ours.
An open and transparent membership model
Membership and Partnership is open to a wide range of geographic and non-geographic entities in the spirit of embracing the cooperation potential in Europe and beyond.
- Full members are: 1) European regions, under the condition that they respect the basic fundamental principles of the Council of Europe or 2) Groups of regions within a state, unless all members of such a group already belong to AER on an individual basis.
- Associate members are: 1) European or non-European territorial entities, organizations or associations, including administrative divisions below national or regional level or 2) The founding organisations of AER, the Interregional Associations of European Regions.
- Observers, for a limited time, are: Any entity wishing to observe AER before joining as a full or associate member.
The term “Region” covers in principle territorial authorities between the central government and local authorities, with a political representation power as entrusted by an elected assembly.
- Partner networks are networks of regions focused on a specific thematic and/or a geographic area. They contribute to the work of the Assembly of European Regions by keeping its members updated on a wide range of topics, while they can easily disseminate information and raise awareness throughout the network.
- Private partners, AER proposes win-win partnerships by connecting companies with the regional world. While businesses can share their vision in their field of knowledge, AER facilitates the access to the regional decision-makers and acts as a hub for companies within the wide regional network.
Interested in AER? Contact our Member Relations Coordinator!
- Justin Sammon
- Call: 00 353 87 761 8275
- Email: [email protected]
