Brussels, 8 April 2015
MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENTS
(12/2015)
18 March 2015
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PROCEEDINGS
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1. Adoption of the agenda
For decision
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The agenda was adopted without comments.
2.
Minutes of the CoP meeting, held on 12
February 2015
For decision
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The minutes were approved without comments.
3. Communication by the President
For information
Preparation of the enlarged CoP
The President reminded the CoP members that the second part of this CoP meeting would be the
enlarged meeting with the chairs of the six standing commissions with a view to synchronize and
maximize the political work within the CoR and in relationship with the other European institutions.
Referring to the constructive discussions he had with the first vice-President Mr Lambertz on this
matter, the President explained their ambition to set up a framework for the whole 5-year mandate in
which the commissions would have a stronger role, already illustrated by the integration of keycommissioners and Director-generals in CoR plenary sessions and commission meetings. The aim for
today's discussion however, was to exchange views on some pilot files or major dossiers CoR could
use to strengthen its relationship with relative committees in the Parliament as to enhance its
performance and get more attention for its consultative work. The President announced that based on
the conclusions of today's meeting he would later this month meet the President of the Conference of
the commissions' chairs in the Parliament, Mr Buzek, in order to start building up concrete steps of
cooperation.
Russia/Ukrainian situation
The President announced that in his opening remarks the next day, and possibly with the EU and
Latvian press, he would refer to the current international political situation and the tense relationship
between Latvia and Russia in particular. He stressed the need to assure that territorial integrity must
be kept high on the agenda of the Council and mentioned the fruitful discussion he had earlier that day
with the Latvian deputy Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Policy, Mr Eduards Stiprais, on this
subject. Furthermore, the President reminded the CoP members that the CoR would take part in the
Eastern Partnership Summit of Heads of State in May, where it would insist on the need to
decentralise the governance in the partner countries and call for financing territorial cooperation and
capacity building, also in cooperation with the CoR and its specific structures, such as CORLEAP and
the task force Ukraine.
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-2Administrative issues
The President gave the floor to the Secretary General, who informed the CoP members on the
expected timeframe regarding the recruitment procedure for the vacant post of a Director for
Administration and Finance. Mr Burianek explained the procedure from the publication of the post, to
be expected mid-May, until the entry into function of the new Director, which should be expected in
December 2015/January 2016, and highlighted the involvement of both the administrative level and
the political level in this procedure.
Furthermore, the Secretary General informed CoP members about the planning of the upcoming
changes in the organizational chart, which would be presented for decision to Bureau on 15 April.
Following that, the implementing measures would then be submitted to the Bureau at its following
meeting on 2nd June.
4. Preparation of the Riga Bureau meeting
For information
The President made a brief presentation of the topic that would be debated during the Bureau
meeting the next day - Digital agenda as a key territorial element ("Investing in connecting Europe") and of the speakers who would participate to this debate. He also reminded the CoP members the
remaining items on the Bureau agenda and the documents submitted for Bureau members' approval.
Gordon Keymer (UK/ECR) shared his concern regarding the decentralised events he noted within
the CoR and asked that this should be aligned better to the CoR's work programme. Furthermore he
argued that all CoR political groups should be represented during the European Congress of Local
Governments in Krakow, Poland on 4 and 5 May, which was organised by the Foundation Institute
for Eastern Studies and the European Committee of the Regions as this meeting takes place within
days from the national Polish elections.
Stanisław Szwabski (PL/EA) regretted that neither (energy) security nor neighbourhood policy were
placed on the agenda, as these were both priorities of the Latvian presidency. The President reassured
him that these subjects would be covered by other CoR activities during the Latvian presidency. Bas
Verkerk (NL/ALDE), supported by Michael Schneider (DE/EPP), expressed his concerns
regarding the Communication Plan and asked to focus more on concrete outcomes. Mr Schneider
asked for a more profound discussion on the communication of the CoR in the framework of the CoP.
On the President's proposal, it was agreed that in view of preparing the multiannual Communication
Plan 2015-2020, the secretariat general would submit a first paper, in order to have an in-depth debate
at the CoP before summer-break.
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-3ENLARGED COP MEETING WITH COMMISSIONS' CHAIRS
5.
Joint strategic planning: exchange of views with
the CoR's Commissions Chairs on:
5a) CoR Commissions' Work Programmes 2015
5b) Pilot files for cooperation with the European
Parliament
For debate
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The President underlined that the CoP was a statutory body that ensured the political leadership and
guidance of our institution, and that one of its political responsibilities was to accompany the
consultative works in the six commissions of the CoR. He mentioned that this enlarged meeting with
the chairs of the CoR commissions should help to increase the quality and time-efficiency and allow
more time for political debates with Commissioners, presidencies of the Council and MEPs during
plenary sessions. The President then shortly introduced the CoP members to the documents in their
file and gave the floor to the representatives of the commissions to present their views.
On behalf of the ENVE commission, the first vice-president, Witold Stępień (PL/EPP), highlighted
the presence of both Mr Karmenu Vella, the commissioner for Environment, and Giovanni La Via,
the chair of the EP's ENVE committee at the last ENVE meeting. Furthermore, he stressed that the
ENVE commission would continue to contribute in a proactive and strategic way to the CoR work. In
the third place, he strongly supported the President's proposal regarding thematic initiatives
implemented by the commissions in the framework of their regular commission meetings, and
highlighted the upcoming thematic conference on the Paris negotiations on climate change that would
be organised by the ENVE commission, as well as the co-organisation of a meeting on the green
infrastructure with the participation of the Environment commissioner and MEPs. Finally he
suggested that for organising this kind of events, commissions should cooperate with the Directorate
for Press and Communication, who also covered the organisation of events and the Open Days.
On behalf of the CIVEX commission, the president, François Decoster (FR/ALDE), expressed the
hope that this enlarged CoP could take place on a more regular basis. Referring to the CIVEX work
programme, he highlighted the focus of the CIVEX commission on European Neighbourhood Policy
and external relations, and on migration and security. With regard to the future of Europe, the CIVEX
commission would continue its efforts to strive towards an improved system of governance,
promoting multi-level governance, subsidiarity and proportionality. The protection and promotion of
fundamental rights and the participation of local and regional authorities in EU development policy
and decentralised cooperation were also high on the 2015 agenda.
With regard to the files proposed by the CIVEX commission for cooperation with the EP, Mr
Decoster suggested the European Neighbourhood Policy and the European Agenda on Migration, as
they were appropriate files for a close cooperation with the EP. Furthermore, he proposed to focus on
the European Citizens' Initiative revision within the context of the general debate on the Future of
Europe thus making the latter more concrete.
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On behalf of the ECON commission, the president, Christian Buchmann (AT/EPP), stressed the
four main areas on which the ECON commission would like to structure its activities: new initiatives
for growth, jobs and investment; an in-depth internal market with a stronger basis; a fair economic
and monetary union; and a reasonable and balanced free trade agreement. With regard to the pilot
projects, the order of priorities that has been established after consultation with the political
coordinators was the internal market strategy in the first place, followed by the Europe 2020 strategy,
the economic and monetary union and finally the free trade agreements. Furthermore the ECON
commission engaged its highest priority to all initiatives that would reduce bureaucratic burdens and
thus limit growth and jobs. Referring to the debate with EC Vice-President Timmermans during the
last plenary session, Mr Buchmann underlined that bureaucracy should be reduced and rules and
procedures should be simplified.
On behalf of the COTER commission, the president, Raffaele Cattaneo (IT/EPP), agreed with the
President that the CoR needed clear and concise priorities that should be concentrated on the essential
role of the CoR. For the COTER commission he highlighted five areas of priority: the investment plan
and the European fund for strategic investment; the future cohesion programmes; the future of
transport policies, particularly referring to disadvantaged regions in terms of geography and
demography; macro-regional strategies and the re-launching of the EGTC's; and the agenda for urban
policies in the EU. He underlined that these priorities also referred to the pilot projects they would
propose for further cooperation with the EP and that the COTER commission would certainly
continue its annual meeting with the corresponding EP commission as this has proved to be very
useful. Finally, Mr Cattaneo called on the CoR to focus more on the added value it could bring, and
particularly on its politicians who had to translate the CoR's technical skills and output into a political
added value.
On behalf of the SEDEC commission, the president, Yoomi Renström (SE/PES), highlighted that the
SEDEC work programme focused on four policy areas: employment, social policy, social protection
and equal opportunities; education and training, lifelong learning, youth and sports; information
society, communications, audiovisual industry, media technology and markets; and research and
innovation. Furthermore, SEDEC stressed in its work programme the extra focus it wanted to put on
legislative dossiers with high relevance for and direct impact on local and regional authorities. As for
the pilot files proposed by the SEDEC commission, Ms Renström underlined the Digital Single
Market Package and the Labour Mobility Package including the Posting of Workers Directive.
Finally, with regard to the EC work programme she mentioned that whereas the focus on priorities
was positive, the lack of ambition in social policy and the lack of consideration for cohesion policy
was disturbing. As these policy areas were very important for local and regional authorities, she called
on the CoR to remind the EC not to diminish the work or interest in those areas.
On behalf of the NAT commission, the president, José Luís Carneiro (PT/PES), stressed that the
three most important areas for the NAT commission for interinstitutional cooperation with the EP
were the new rural development programmes 2015-2020, the future of the dairy sector, and the
implementation of the new fisheries policy, including blue growth. He underlined that these areas
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-5were crosscutting in nature. The CoR thus needed to ensure that there was political efficiency in its
work. Furthermore, Mr Carneiro informed the CoP members on their meeting on rural innovation on
18 and 19 June in Porto and invited the CoR President to attend this meeting, where the focus would
be on the integration between the development of rural and urban areas.
The President thanked the commission presidents for their useful input and underlined that this
would be taken on board in the strategic paper that has been drafted by the secretariat general, and
which would be presented again to the presidents of the political groups and the presidents of the
commissions before 15 April.
The first Vice-President, Mr Lambertz, underlined his satisfaction that the commissions have
managed to specify their priorities in the few weeks since the start of the new mandate, which was an
important step towards a more pro-active way of working of the CoR. Now that the priorities have
been set, the CoR should focus on the selection of the pilot projects with the aim to reinforce the
cooperation with the EP and to demonstrate that the CoR could have real influence. When selecting
these projects, the CoR should keep in mind the need of intensive work with the EP and set its
selection criteria rightly, focussing on maximum three or four projects for the first year. In the
selection process, he argued that the CoR should focus, on one hand, on projects where it could
demonstrate the political relevance for local and regional authorities, based on a political assessment
of the potential of making a real difference in the EP, and, on the other hand, on projects which fitted
in with the communication strategy of the CoR and which would demonstrate its achievements on
behalf of the local and regional authorities.
On behalf of the PES group, Catiuscia Marini agreed with the idea of making a selection of projects
where the CoR could clearly demonstrate its added value, but that the selection should also reflect the
areas that CoR was particularly concerned with. On one hand, the commission invited us officially to
become active, to have more effective standards for reducing bureaucracy, but CoR should not
compartmentalise some of these packages and just look at the impact in a number of sectors, whether
it’s the environment, social affairs or cohesion policy. She argued that it was of great importance to
select the pilot proposals for reinforced cooperation with the EP on the basis of their relevance and
impact on local and regional authorities. The European citizens should be able to see what the CoR
was doing on their behalf. With regard to the priorities brought forward by the commission presidents,
Ms Marini recognised that the investment package and the investment plan for Europe brought
forward by the COTER commission was at the heart of the CoR’s work, together with cohesion
policy. As for the ECON commission, she underlined the impact of the work that has already been
done when it came to defining strategies with regard to TTIP and trade. Working priorities should be
recognised for the Energy Union and the circular economy put forward by the ENVE commission. As
for the SEDEC commission, Ms Marini stressed that the CoR should cooperate with the EP to take
initiatives on the package regarding workers’ mobility. Finally, she underlined the importance of
migration (CIVEX) and the rural development programme (NAT) for local and regional authorities.
She concluded by mentioning that the priorities should be defined by the political agenda of the CoR
and the real impact it could have in the legislative process.
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-6On behalf of the EPP group, Michael Schneider supported the structured and focused approach
suggested by Mr Lambertz and reminded the CoP members of the subjects on which the CoR has
been able to cooperate well with the EP in the past, in particular cohesion policy and structural funds.
He stressed that for the future CoR should focus on subjects where there was a clear added value in
the cooperation with the EP for both institutions. Furthermore, he expressed his satisfaction with the
way in which today’s discussion was set up and asked the president to continue these enlarged
meetings with the commission presidents in the future. He also reminded the CoP members that the
relatively small Working Programme of the EC for this year created opportunities for the CoR as this
would allow for more time to focus on the exchange of opinions and in-depth political discussions.
On behalf of the ALDE group, Bas Verkerk aligned with Mr Schneider in stressing the importance of
meeting with the commission chairs more frequently as to define together the areas in which the CoR
could have a real impact and reinforce its cooperation with the EP. The CoR should take the political
leadership to defend the interests of Europe’s local and regional authorities, and select maximum six
or seven areas to which it could give a higher priority. With regard to the selection criteria, he
underlined the political relevance of the area for all European citizens, areas where rapporteurs can be
designated quickly, and areas where there was sufficient overlap between the position taken by the EP
and the CoR. He called on the commission chairs to keep the CoP members informed on the progress
and reminded that only together they would be able to assess the priorities again for each year.
On behalf of the EA group, Stanisław Szwabski thanked the commission chairs for their efforts to
present very concise priorities and underlined his support for a closer cooperation with the EP and its
committees to achieve the desired more pro-active approach of the CoR. He stressed that the CoR
should set its priorities according to the influence they would have on the citizens’ opinion of Europe.
On behalf of the ECR group, Gordon Keymer argued that there should be a bigger role for the
principle of subsidiarity in the priorities highlighted by the CIVEX commission, as this was
fundamental for the CoR’s work. As regards the priority projects, Mr Keymer was not in favour of
including the Future of Europe as he considered the topic too general. Concerning the Digital Single
Market however, he stressed the possibility of the CoR to take the initiative in this area and pleaded
for a joint effort of the SEDEC and ECON commissions in this respect. Finally, with regard to the
priorities brought forward by the ECON commission, he argued that international trade should not be
a priority of the CoR as it had no link with local and regional governments. According to Mr Keymer,
the same applied to the subject of Common Consolidated Corporate Tax, as this would go against the
principle of subsidiarity.
The President concluded by summarising the next steps towards a reinforced cooperation with the
EP, in which the conclusions of the debate would be taken into account for the meeting with the
President of the Conference of the commissions' chairs in the Parliament, Mr Buzek. He also
mentioned that the CoR’s Work Programme would be presented to the Bureau in April and, possibly,
discussed with EP President Schultz during one of the upcoming CoP meetings. He noted the great
support for a more pro-active way of working of the CoR, focusing on thematic policy strategies that
could be developed by the commissions through innovative and proactive working methods – such as
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-7organising more debates/hearings and stakeholder consultations within and alongside the
constitutional commission meetings. Their implementation should be supported by a stronger
involvement of members in the new activities and a better use of their individual expertise and
interests.
He finally passed the floor to the Secretary General who shortly commented on the next steps and
actions to be taken in this process, highlighting the importance of bilateral meetings between CoR
members and EP members and of continuing the strategic and constructive dialogue with the EP. He
underlined that an internal stocktaking was planned for autumn 2015, focussing on the achievements
with regard to this new approach towards the EP. Finally, a high-level inter-institutional stocktaking
and political outlook on the EP-CoR cooperation was planned for the end of 2015, involving the CoR
president speaking before the EP Conference of Presidents and the EP President intervening before
the CoR Members.
6.
Any other business
Having noticed that there was no welcome desk installed on Riga airport, Mr Keymer asked the
administration to put the proper welcoming of CoR members on the agenda when preparing future
external meetings.
7.
Date of the next meeting
The next CoP meeting will take place on 15 April 2015 in Brussels.
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