Press Release
The EU's Assembly of Regional and Local Representatives
COR/12/7
Brussels, 16 February 2012
Multilevel governance: strengthening the role of cities and regions in the
exercise of European governance
Europe is currently in crisis, both a financial crisis and a crisis of confidence towards its
institutions, which makes it more important than ever to make multilevel governance a reality
in the Member States. Ensuring that cities and regions are more involved in framing,
implementing and evaluating EU policies with a territorial impact will lay the necessary
foundations for the success of those policies. This is the message of Committee of the
Regions members meeting today in plenary session in Brussels, with the unanimous adoption
of the opinion presented by Luc Van den Brande (BE/EPP), president of the Flanders-Europe
Liaison Agency.
In its 2009 White Paper on Multilevel Governance, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) undertook to
promote a culture of multilevel governance in Europe in order to strengthen the Community method
based on partnership, dialogue, joint implementation and participation of elected representatives at all
levels of the European process. The follow-up opinion adopted today reports on progress made in EU
policies with a territorial dimension, such as the single market, the environment, energy, agriculture
and fisheries, enlargement policies, development and neighbourhood policy. It also recommends new
measures to consolidate the exercise of this method of governance.
"Multilevel governance must not be regarded as a purely theoretical concept of EU jargon that is
endorsed on paper but rarely applied in practice. The principle of multilevel governance must be an
integral part of EU legislative texts as a fundamental guiding principle of the European
decision-making process for all EU policies with a territorial impact. The time has come for a new
culture and practical approach to multilevel governance", noted Mr Van den Brande when his opinion
was adopted.
The opinion observes that the CoR's call for multilevel governance has gained traction over the past
few years in its partner institutions. This applies to the Lisbon Treaty, which has entrenched multilevel
governance in the operation of the EU, as well as recent European Commission proposals on future
cohesion policy, which recognises the essential role of local and regional levels of government in
framing and implementing EU programmes. The CoR is also increasingly recognised by the other
institutions as a source of expertise in this area. Despite all these developments, considerable
progress still has to be made.
"We must obviously go further than this. The CoR's Multilevel Governance Scoreboard, which
monitors the progress of multilevel governance at EU level, demonstrates the persistence of deficits
and gaps in observing the principle of multilevel governance, including in key EU dossiers such as the
Europe 2020 strategy, energy policy and the Stockholm Programme on immigration and asylum.
There are still too few innovative instruments created to encourage the participation of cities and
regions and hold them accountable," explained the rapporteur.
To give form and substance to the CoR's political project, its members advocate the drawing up of a
European Union Charter for Multilevel Governance, which should lead to more participation of local
and regional authorities in the exercise of European democracy. By the same token, they ask the
Commission to consider adapting EU administrative law in order to establish more participatory
procedures in accordance with the key values and principles of this future Charter.
The CoR also intends to continue its annual assessment of the situation of regionalisation and
decentralisation in the European Union so as to provide a measure of progress observed towards
local and regional authorities' political, judicial and fiscal autonomy.
Further information:
Draft opinion on Building a European culture of multilevel governance: follow-up to the Committee of
the Regions' White Paper (the updated version will be available shortly)
Visit the CoR's website at www.cor.europa.eu.
The Committee of the Regions
The Committee of the Regions is the EU's assembly of regional and local representatives. The
mission of its 344 members from all 27 EU Member States is to involve regional and local authorities
and the communities they represent in the EU's decision-making process and to inform them about
EU policies. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council are obliged to
consult the Committee in policy areas affecting regions and cities. It can appeal to the EU Court of
Justice if its rights are infringed or it believes that an EU law violates the subsidiarity principle or fails
to respect regional or local powers.
> For more information, please contact:
Nathalie Vandelle
Tel. +32 2282 24 99
Nathalie.Vandelle@cor.europa.eu
> Previous press releases