Assembly of European Regions

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Monitoring regionalisation has always been one of AER's main missions and objectives. Keeping track of the developments in all European countries, in terms of decentralisation, subsidiarity, regional democracy and key to understanding where European regionalisation comes from, and where we are heading.

The section below brings together articles, interviews, publications from members and experts across Europe to keep track of the State of the Regions in Europe.

General Assembly 2007 in Udine: Pres. lly and Barroso stated that “Regions are Building Blocks for Europe!”

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Udine, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (I), 9 November 2007

As EU nations come to grips with selling the idea of a shared “European identity” to citizens, the regions of wider Europe have taken up that challenge with this week’s adoption of the Assembly of European Regions(AER) Udine Declaration. The declaration sets out the regions’ crucial role in fostering a common European identity, and was adopted by the 650 representatives from 155 European regions attending AER’s 2007 General Assembly.

AER’s General Assembly was hosted this year by AER President Riccardo Illy in his home region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (I). In a joint press conference held in Udine today with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Illy said:

“As this region’s President, I have seen first hand how an active regional authority can nurture regional identity among citizens. It is the regional authorities that are closest to the citizens, and it is the regions that are best equipped to lead citizens towards Europe. The Udine Declaration sets out exactly how we can put that into practice.”

President Barroso added:

“Regions play a significant role in forging strong regional, national and European identities. The Udine Declaration of the AER General Assembly has highlighted this complex interdependence and the related opportunities and challenges.

“Regions are key to involving citizens actively in the building of Europe. I most appreciate the successful work carried out by AER for more than 20 years to set up networks and projects that interlink European citizens and regional decision-makers.”

On behalf of the European regions, AER’s Udine Declaration asks national governments and the European institutions to implement the following key points:

  • Give regions the responsibility and the financial means to design and manage policies which impact upon regional identities;
  •  Recognise that regional identity and the principle of subsidiarity are key factors in the development of strong cohesive regions;
  •  Recognise and provide support for the role of regions in developing – in addition to the existing national identities – a European identity;
  •  Restrict the ability of the European Commission to use State Aid policy to limit regions’ delivery of cultural, media and education policies.

The Udine Declaration recognises that the regions are ” building blocks for Europe” – the regions gathered at this year’s AER General Assembly are already putting those blocks into place.

For more information: [email protected]

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AER President Illy at the CoR Plenary: “Regions have a fundamental Role to play in Tomorrow’s Europe”

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“Europe must now find the strength to make new progress”, said Riccardo Illy, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia-I, during the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions, which was held today in Rome to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the EU Founding Treaties.

Speaking during the round table on “Tomorrow’s Europe, the contribution of local and regional authorities”, President Illy explained that “Europe has reached huge results in the last 50 years, but it was especially during the last 14 years that the best ones came”. Riccardo Illy mentioned, among others, the Single Market, the Schengen Treaty, the Monetary Union and the Enlargement.

“According to me, European regions have a fundamental role to play in boosting the linguistic and cultural diversities, which constitute the real competitive advantage of Europe“, said Mr. Illy. He added that one significant instrument -in this respect- is the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), which is set to start next August: “This will be a fundamental tool, in order to build further the social and economic dimension of the European Union”.

President Illy underlined that European regions share the target for a ratification of the Constitutional Treaty by the year 2009: “I strongly hope that once the Constitutional Treaty is ratified, regions will be able to express all their real potential”, he said.

Riccardo Illy made a final note on enlargement: “There are countries, like Croatia, Southern-Eastern European nations and Turkey, which have great hopes about the EU. They are eager to enter it as soon as possible”.

For more information: [email protected]

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Berlin Declaration of the European Regions: Strong Regions need a strong Europe!

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‘The time has come for the Regions, the Member States and the European Institutions to work together, to define a common vision for Europe and to set a joint course of action for the coming 50 years.’

Half a century ago, the six founding nations of the European Economic Community met to pursue their common interest of peace and prosperity across continent. Today, Europe is at a crossroad. European regional leaders, meeting in the city of Berlin, set out the steps EU leaders must take in order to face the challenges of the 21st century.

The Berlin Declaration of the Assembly of European Regions urges the EU to focus on what it does best: addressing those challenges that cannot be met by national or regional governments acting alone. Among them, the regions identified trade, security, environmental and energy policies as the most pressing. Citizens do want to reap the benefits of globalisation, but at the same time they fear its reverse side: business relocation, unemployment fears and the future challenges associated with our welfare systems can only be addressed by a strong Union. And what about transnational crime and terrorism, where police cooperation is strongly needed? The issue of climate change, a phenomenon that we are already experiencing first-hand, together with the related energy issues, are also threats that the national states cannot address by themselves any more.

“We need a stronger Europe both externally and internally”, said Riccardo Illy, President of the AER and of the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, during the press conference which followed the AER Presidium meeting. On the internal side, Mr. Illy underlined how Europe must exploit and reinforce the principles of subsidiarity, cohesion and diversity. “Diversity is our competitive advantage”, he stressed. This is the reason why a strong Europe needs strong regions, just as much as strong regions need a strong Europe!

European regions also proposed today a way out of the Constitutional impasse: they invited the German Presidency of the EU to firstly check whether the conditions still exist to approve and unanimously adopt the Constitutional Treaty in its current form. If this option fails, regions propose to go back to the Intergovernmental Conference table, where EU members should absolutely find an agreement on a minimum number of necessary amendments, in order that the Treaty can be ratified in all 27 Member States.

For more information: [email protected]

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Regions of Europe for the Constitution! AER delivers an Appeal to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano

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Klaus Klipp, Secretary General of the Assembly of European Regions, delivered this morning a letter on behalf of AER President Riccardo Illy (President of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy) to the President of the Republic of Italy Giorgio Napolitano, who’s in Strasbourg for a solemn visit to the European Parliament.

In the document the more than 250 regions represented by AER issue an appeal to the Italian President for a rapid ratification of the European Constitution: ‘the EU Constitutional Treaty has got numerous elements which we consider vital for the future of the regional dimension in Europe’, writes Riccardo Illy in the letter.

Mr. Illy, on behalf of the AER regions, invites the Italian president to go on advocating for the ratification of the Treaty with the EU partners, and asks him to support the proposal of inserting an explicit reference to regional and local self-government in the next ‘Berlin Declaration’, to be signed in March by EU leaders.

The AER Presidum is due to meet on the 22nd February in Berlin, to further discuss proposals and initiatives on the Treaty ratification. The aim is also to boost those Constitutional provisions which make an explicit reference to regional powers.

For more information: [email protected]

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Press invitation: Declaration of the European regions: What we really need… and now!

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The political representatives of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), together with major experts on the European Constitution, are meeting in Berlin on the 22nd February, in order to show the EU Member States the way ahead on the EU Treaty.

The AER Presidium, representing more than 250 European regions, will on that day issue the ‘Declaration of the European Regions for the Constitution’, asking the German Presidency of the EU to implement as soon as possible those Treaty provisions which the European regions and their citizens need now, in order to move on with their projects and partnership schemes.

Riccardo Illy, AER President and President of Friuli Venezia Giulia-I, together with Peter Straub, AER Vice-President and President of the Landtag Baden Württemberg-D, take pleasure in inviting you to the press conference on Thursday 22nd February at 13.00, at the Representative Office (Landesvertretung) of Baden-Württemberg in Berlin – Tiergartenstrasse 15 – 10785 Berlin (room Württemberg).

Personal interviews with Riccardo Illy, Peter Straub and the other participants to the conference can be arranged immediately after the press conference.

For more information: [email protected]

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Thematic dossier n°11 on Regions of Europe – Winter 2005

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Regions of Europe

Table of contents:

  • Editorial by Riccardo Illy, President
  • Europe’s future lies in its regions
  • Regionalisation gains ground in Europe
  • The regional cause forges ahead in Europe
  • Regions 2000: greater solidarity
  • The AER, twenty years on

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AER Convention over the last development of the EU Constitution Draft

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The Presidium of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), meeting in Strasbourg today, evaluated the work of the European Convention and expressed satisfaction on its initial results over the Draft of a Constitutional Text for the EU.

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Commentary: Reinforcing the Regions

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European unification within the “Europe of the Regions” is one of the principles of the Baden- Württemberg Constitution, which has always given a particular importance to crossborder cooperation, especially with French and Swiss regions. The role of the regions in Europe is not sufficiently acknowledged by the public, which is more interested in activities of the state. The future of European integration however, also depends on a construction from the bottom (regions, municipalities) up (states, EU). The words of the sociologist, Daniel Bell “the state is too small to solve the big problems and too big to solve the small ones” are still valid today. This does not mean that the states are superfluous, but internationalization leads to problems that can only be resolved through supranational cooperation. The fields of action for the states, therefore, tend to be reduced, their structures being, often, too rigid to solve the essential problems facing the citizen (education, infrastructure, culture, health etc.)

The future belongs as much to the European supranational community as to the regional and municipalunities. Reinforcingonedoesnot mean weakening the other; the best sollution would be to have a good combination of both.

Crossborder cooperation plays a key role in European integration because each experience can become a model to be followed at Europeanlevel. Common agreements and successes reinforce the regions. Regionalism leads to a greater proximity to the citizen. Regionalism and European integration form two sides of a coin and it is, therefore, crucial that crossborder cooperation be supported by the European Union.

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Draft European Charter of Regional Democracy

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The Draft European Charter of Regional Democracy was initiated by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE) in 1997. The original idea behind the Charter was to set out the key principles that should underlie effective regional democracy in Europe, covering areas such as financial autonomy and legislative powers. However, the Charter failed to attract the support of a sufficient majority of Member States at the Ministerial Conferences in Helsinki in 2002 and Budapest in 2005, with disagreements emerging over whether the instrument should be legally binding. In order to restart the debate on the Charter, the Congress has developed a new text, which responds to the objections raised by the Member States and also takes into account developments in the field of regional democracy over the past ten years. The AER supported this initiative as it was wishing to see a binding regional charter enter into force.

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