Beyond mere ‘consultation’: Expanding the European Committee of the Regions’ role

The Committee of the Regions is commonly seen as a ‘minor’ part of the EU’s policy-making system, but its institutional development and action offer interesting examples of the strategies used to actively expand the body’s role. By tracing how the CoR is developing its institutional capacity, pushing the boundaries of its consultative mandate and deploying activities beyond its formal role, the article illustrates the institutional activism which characterizes much of the development of the EU institutional structure

What Prospects for the European Constitutional Treaty?

The ratification process of the Constitutional Treaty has taken some unexpected turns, since the publication of the EPIN's initial report. The situation has changed especially dramatically in France. The report concluded that

A Citizens Compact: Reaching out to the Citizens of Europe. CEPS EPIN Working Papers No. 14, 1 September 2005

[Executive Summary]. How can the deadlock after the ‘no’ to the European Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands be overcome? What should be the aim of the ‘period of reflection’ that has been agreed by the European Council? The authors of this paper propose the adoption of a ‘Citizens Compact’, which should directly address the larger malaise among citizens that underlies the Constitutional crisis. It should contribute to the reduction of the EU’s democratic deficit without treaty reform. The following measures should be envisaged: • National parliaments should participate more strongly in the controversies on core European issues through earlier and intensive debates about EU initiatives. • Every six months governments should explain their positions on the priorities of the EU-presidency in their national parliaments. • EU-actors (MEPs, Commissioners and top officials) should participate more intensively in national debates about European issues and contribute to a better understanding of the European political processes among citizens. • National governments should regularly publish information bulletins about the latest EU initiatives and –decisions. • Public fora about European issues should be established in every member state with speakers coming from national politics, from the EU level and other member states as well as representatives from civil society. • Uncontroversial elements of the Constitutional Treaty that strengthen EU democracy could already be adopted through inter-institutional agreements. • A White Paper on the establishment of a ‘European Democratic and Civic Space’ in the EU should be elaborated. • In the future important legislative acts should contain an impact assessment of the consequences on citizens’ lives

Deadlock avoided, but sense of mission lost? The Enlarged EU and its Uncertain Constitution. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 92, 1 February 2006

This Policy Brief investigates whether the Constitution’s coming into force would make a decisive difference compared to the status quo. In the first part the authors therefore take a closer look at concrete institutional aspects to illustrate how the EU is currently performing. At the same time they ask whether the Constitutional provisions would have changed the Union’s efficiency decisively for the better. In the second part, the issue is put into a broader context analysing especially the Constitution’s symbolic importance and its implications for the balance of power between the EU institutions

What Prospects for the European Constitutional Treaty? – Monitoring the Ratification Debates. Results of an EPIN survey of national experts. CEPS EPIN Working Papers No. 12, 1 January 2005

{Executive Summary]. Following the success of the EPIN survey on the European elections 2004 (EPIN Working Paper No. 11), the authors decided to use a similar approach for monitoring the current ratification process of the European Constitutional Treaty. Accordingly, the findings presented in this paper are based on the results of a survey conducted among national experts associated with the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). As such, they are inherently subjective, but nevertheless wellinformed. The report draws on survey data collected in 20 EU member states, supplemented by additional sources of information on the remaining countries where available. While the actual outcomes may prove our findings wrong in one respect or another, they do indicate interesting developments and differences in the respective member states. The added value of this EPIN survey lies in its broad comparative scope and analysis rather than its offering an in-depth assessment of each national debate. (For the latter, special country reports are envisaged at a later point in time.) The EPIN Ratification Monitor project plans to publish regular updates on the rapidly changing situation

for Constitutional Compromise and the

enlightening the debate on good governance ONLINE PAPER 33/0

Update on the Ratification Debates: What Prospects for the European Constitutional Treaty? Results of and EPIN Survey of National Experts. CEPS EPIN Working Papers No. 13, 1 May 2005

Since EPIN’s first monitoring report in January, the issue of the European Constitution has grown in relevance and visibility in many member states. Yet there continue to be important differences in how the individual aspects of the text are perceived in the various national debates. This update of EPIN’s survey on the progress and obstacles to ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty provides a snapshot of the approval processes in the different EU member states at a crucial point in time, just before the vote in France and the Netherlands. The paper draws from EPIN network experts in the 25 EU countries and offers a reassessment of the probability of ratification

The committee of the regions: the recon models from a subnational perspective

The Committee of the Regions is a relatively young institution in the European Union context. Since having been set up by the Maastricht Treaty, it has gone through an interesting development which saw an increase in its consultative role, an important expansion of its remit and also its resources, and a number of new initiatives in trying to act as the platform and voice of local and regional interests in the EU policy process. The present paper tries to evaluate the CoR's trajectory through the prism of the three models of EU democracy development (audit democracy, multi-national federal democracy and regional-European cosmopolitan democracy) as developed in the RECON project. It is argued that the sub-national level has to be directly involved in the EU structures in any attempt at 're-constituting' democracy at EU level. The Committee of the Regions as it stands today does have elements of all three models of democracy in it, and these different features seem to pull the Committee in different directions at times. It emerges clearly from this analysis, however, that the CoR has an important role to play in an EU conceived as a genuine multi-level system of governance.Committee of Regions; democracy; institutionalisation; political representation; regional policy; subsidiarity