Europe’s elected regional and local representatives warned against closing the EU’s doors to aspiring countries, while firmly requesting further reforms on the ground. By adopting two opinions on the bloc’s enlargement strategy, the members of the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR), meeting in their bimonthly plenary session on 17-18 June, also sent a strong decentralisation message to EU candidate countries and hopefuls: as the bulk of EU legislation is implemented by local and regional authorities, they are of crucial importance for making a country “EU-ready”. The essential role of sub-national actors in the accession process has to be recognised, and their capacities strengthened accordingly.

The CoR’s opinion on the enlargement strategy for the candidate countries was drafted by Jasmina Vidmar (SI/ALDE), Member of Maribor City Council and Secretary-General of the Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia. Five years after her home country’s accession to the EU, Vidmar highlights “the importance of the enlargement process for the stable and democratic development of candidate countries”. While fully supporting the measures and reforms introduced by the candidate countries in order to meet the membership criteria, Vidmar’s opinion outlines the need for further reforms on the road to Union membership. Regional and local authorities have a crucial role to play in this process: “We need to involve local and regional authorities and their associations in the accession process at an early stage. With their knowledge and experience they can contribute new and added value to the accession process.” The process of devolution needs to be speeded up and be bolstered by financial and administrative means.

CoR requests to the candidate countries

The CoR requests that the EU candidate countries move on swiftly with the transposition of EU laws in their own legal systems. The Committee insists in particular that EU Regulation 1082/2006 on the “European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC)” is taken over as soon as possible by all candidate countries. This would allow to reinforce cross-border cooperation between regions and local authorities in the EU and the candidate countries. The CoR underlines that this cooperation would directly have a positive impact on the different accession processes.

Croatia

The CoR welcomes the general progress made by Croatia in adopting and implementing reforms, but also highlights the candidate country’s need to step up its efforts to reform the judiciary, fight corruption and organised crime, safeguard minority rights by increasing financial resources and administrative support for integration measures at local and regional level, support the return of refugees and continue to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The Committee also points out the shortcomings in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s endeavours to meet the political EU membership criteria. The CoR specifically underlines the lack of further progress on the rights of the Roma community and highlights the repeated cases of discrimination of Roma. As regards gender equality the CoR welcomes the setting up of equal opportunities commissions in numerous local authorities. It, however, also calls for further efforts to fight corruption, prevent family and sexual violence, reduce discrimination and guarantee more equal participation at elections.

Turkey

Regarding Turkey, the CoR expects effective political and constitutional reforms that will draw the country closer to international and European standards, and notes that progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime has been rather limited. Most importantly the CoR deplores that EU standards on cultural and religious diversity, respect and protection of minorities as well as the equality of women in the practical reality of political life have not been met entirely and that appropriate legal and practical steps have still to be taken.

As regards the role of local and regional authorities the CoR welcomes that the financial capacities of the municipalities have been enhanced recently but believes also that towns and cities must be empowered to operate more effectively as platforms for public involvement in local government decision taking.

Finally the Committee insists that the comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus question based on    UN Security Council resolutions and on the principles on which the European Union is founded is a condition for Turkey’s EU accession.

CoR urges Western Balkans to embrace European values

The CoR plenary session also adopted its complementary opinion on the enlargement strategy for the potential candidate countries, prepared by Gordon Keymer, Member of Tandridge District Council (UK/EPP – video message). Keymer notes a contradiction between the promotion of people-to-people contacts and the application of strict EU visa regimes, and “calls on the European Commission to work faster towards lifting the visa regime for the countries that recently made progress in fulfilling required criteria defined in their roadmaps”. He urges “all countries concerned to make additional efforts towards embracing European values, reforms and accepting dialogue as a means of reconciliation”. Asking the potential candidate countries to resolve remaining bilateral issues including border disputes and providing for the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, he stresses the role of sub-national actors: “Local and regional authorities are the best placed spheres of government to implement such changes.”

CoR requests to the potential candidate countries Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo

In its opinion, the CoR considers that there is an urgent need for further capacity building of local authorities, local government associations and the national Department of Public Administration in Albania. More particularly, the report underlines that the functioning of municipal financial services has to be looked into carefully during the forthcoming fiscal decentralisation as local tax and revenue collection is very limited. According to the CoR report the limited administrative capacity of local authorities and its association has also to be addressed urgently by the government of Montenegro.

As regards Bosnia and Herzegovina the report regrets the lack of communication between the constituent entities’ governments of the federation on aspects of EU accession, which has had a negative impact on the speed of reforms and prevents a proper information flow to local governments. The CoR urges Serbia to continue working on devolution. Most importantly the EU Assembly of regions and local authorities demands that the issue of municipal property rights must be resolved. At present local authorities in Serbia do not own their properties. For Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the CoR report suggests to reinforce confidence-building activities between different ethnic groups and encouragement to participate in local decision-taking processes.

Notes to editors:

The Committee of the Regions monitors progress of the enlargement countries and assists local and regional authorities in the accession process through several working groups and bodies: – Working Group on the Western Balkans, chaired by Jos Chabert (BE/EPP) – Working Group on Croatia, chaired by Isidoro Gottardo (IT/EPP) – video message – Working Group on relations with Turkey, chaired by Karl-Heinz Klär (DE/PES) – video message – Joint consultative committee with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, co-chaired by Dimitar Buzlevski, Mayor of Resen and Bødker Andersen (DK/PES) – video message

Visit the CoR’s website: www.cor.europa.eu

The Committee of the Regions

Around two-thirds of EU legislation is implemented by local and regional authorities in the Member States. The Committee of the Regions was created in 1994 to give representatives of local government a say over the content of these laws. The CoR organises five plenary sessions a year, where its 344 members vote on opinions issued in response to proposed legislation. The European Commission, which initiates EU laws, and the Council of Ministers, which determines the final content of the legislation (usually in tandem with the European Parliament), are obliged to consult the CoR on a wide range of policy areas including the environment, employment and transport. The Lisbon Treaty will strengthen the position of the Committee of the Regions further. In future, the Committee must be consulted by the European Parliament on all issues that are important for regions and municipalities. The Committee can also 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:

Michael Alfons Tel.: +32 (0)2 546 85 59 Michael.Alfons@cor.europa.eu

Chris Jones Tel. + 32 (0)2 546 87 51 christopher.jones@cor.europa.eu

Athénais Cazalis de Fondouce Tel. + 32 (0)2 282 24 47 Athenais.CazalisDeFondouce@cor.europa.eu

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