THE ROLE OF REGIONS IN EUROPE

Student: Ioana AntoneProfessor Coordinator: Ph.D Rafał Czachor

Polkowice, 2013

“In order to promote its overall harmonious development, the Union shall develop and pursue its action leading to the strengthening of its economic, social and territorial cohesion. In particular, The Union shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardnes of the least favoured regions.”

Draft Constitutional Treaty Article III-136 (formerly Treaty of the European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome) Article 158

What, exactly, are regions? The answer to that question varies widely: geographers,economists, politicians, governments, and individual citizens may hold different and potentially contradictory notions of what constitutes a region.

ECONOMIC REGIONS

Economic regions are mainly defined by economic criteria such as predominant patterns of industrial and agricultural production, the size and distribution of population, infrastructure and communication networks, and the availability of both natural and human resources for economic deyelopment purposes.

HISTORICAL REGIONS

Historical regions are usually marked by a long tradition of existence as recognisable territorial units. These territories are freaquently based on medieval or even premedieval patterns of human settlement, determined by the availability of specific natural resources, and associated with distinct geographical features such as mountain ranges rivers and coastlines as well as soil quality and the presence of mineral resources.

ADMINISTRATIVE OR PLANNING REGIONS

Administrative or planning regions, by contrast, arę basically lines on a map, arbitrarily drawn by governments according to criteria of administratiye convenience, population size, travel-to-work patterns and similar administrative definitions.

POLITICAL REGIONS

Political regions are recognisable by the existence of some form of regional government, usually comprising an elected legislative institution for political decision making (Parliament, Assembly, or Council), and a regional executive which is politically controlled from within the region.

WHY REGIONS MATTER

Regions matter in the debate on the future of the European Union for a number of very concrete reasons. The key reasons why regions have a right and a need to be fully involved in the efforts to promote European integration and to bring the European Union closer to the citizens, are as follows:

PROXIMITY

Regions have a high level of familiarity with local circumstances and mentalities, which they can use to ensure that European polices relate to the realities on the ground. Their proximity to the citizens makes them valuable partners in European policy-making.

COMMUNICATION

Regions can help to disseminate European information to the citizens, translating it into a language that citizens understand. They can bring European policy alive, by providing practical, local examples for how European policies and programmes relate to citizens in their own regions.

IMPLEMENTATION

Regions are responsible for the management of 70-80 per cent of EU policy and therefore can provide information to the European institutions about what works and what does not. This is a powerful argument for the inclusion of regions in European policy-making processes.

PARTICIPATION

Regional involvement in shaping European policy can lead to greater participation of citizens in European policy-making, as the regions are able to carry the views of the citizens into the European arena. Regions can empower their citizens to engage in European issues.

LEGITIMACY

Regional governments have a democratic legitimacy and can bring this legitimacy into the European governance and policy-making. This can help to ensure democratic control of European policy-making.

EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION

Regions can work to build a European reality at a grassroots level, through the development and implementation of joint projects and programmes. This is a notion of Europe that is not dependent upon the European institutions, but rather upon the daily realities of close co-operation and partnership across borders.

ASSEMBLY OF EUROPEAN REGIONS(AER) The Assembly of European Regions

(AER) is the largest independent network of regional authorities in wider Europe, bringing together over 250 regions from 35 countries along with 16 interregional organisations.

AER WANTS :

To establish the principle of subsidiarity as the guiding principle underpinning policy making in Europe

To promote regional interests vis-à-vis European and national policy-makers 

To embody and reflect the regional dimension in Europe and make it more visible on the European continent 

To ensure that regions remain a driving force for political, economic and social development with a view of accomplishing a multi-layer Europe

CONCLUSION

The place of regions in Europe is alongside that of national and non-state actors. They are not, any more, mere statistical units or the subordinates of central governments, but neither are they anywhere near to replacing the state. In a Europe which is variously called multiperspectival , multi-layered or simply complex, regions are actors whose strategies and decisions are shaping the future of the continent. It is this recognition that ought to guide the political discourse as well as academic analysis away from the `Europe of the Regions', and towards a more differentiated appraisal of the realities of the `New Europe'.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jórg Mathias , Regions and Regional Politics in Europę

AER White Paper on The Role of the Regions in Reconnecting Europe with its Citizens, March 2006

Susana Borrás-Alomar, Thomas Christiansen and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Towards a `Europe of the Regions'? Visions and Reality from a Critical Perspective

http://www.aer.eu/what-is-aer/aer.html