The territorial dimension of the Conference on the Future of Europe and its follow-ups
The territorial dimension of the Conference on the Future of Europe and its follow-ups a new report for the European Committee of the Regions by Jan Bazyli Klakla, Agnieszka Kulesa, Karolina Zubel (CASE) andTony Zamparutti (Milieu Consulting).
This final report was prepared as part of the project The territorial dimension of the Conference on the Future of Europe and its follow-ups commissioned by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) under the specific contract No CDR.13594 implementing multiple framework contract for studies in the fields of constitutional affairs, multilevel governance, and devolution No CDR/TL1/66/2020/1. The main aim of the contract is the preparation of a study presenting the outcomes of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) which are of relevance for the CoR aligned with three specific objectives set for its participation in the CoFoE (as described in the Terms of Reference of this study), particularly in the framework of strengthening the role of local and regional authorities in European democracy and the functioning of the European Union:
- CoR representatives shall promote the role of European representative democracy at the local and regional level in order to increase the democratic legitimacy of the EU as well as the sense of identity and ownership of the European project for its citizens. CoR representatives will also fight for a strengthening of participative democracy, based on the best practices for permanent consultation mechanisms experienced at the local and regional level (O1);
- CoR representatives shall promote multilevel governance in the EU: the CoFoE should also lead to increased EU delivery capacity through active subsidiarity and a better involvement of regional and local authorities in the elaboration and implementation of EU legislation and policy processes (O2);
- CoR representatives should make concrete proposals to address the territorial dimension of European policies in the achievement of the EU’s overall cohesion objective (O3).
This study will also be of use to support the CoR’s follow-up to the CoFoE’s recommendations concerning European democracy and institutional issues, providing a knowledge-based backup to its legislative and political work, in line with the recently published Report of the High Level Group on European Democracy, a resolution on the contribution of the local and regional authorities to the Conference on the Future of Europe (RESOL-VII/019), and the Marseille Manifesto of local and regional leaders: “Europe starts in its regions, cities and villages”. It will also facilitate the gathering and development of the ideas put forward in the CoFoE which might be relevant for cities and regions as well as provide an overview of potential CoR partners and allies.
