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Interview with Peter Straub: Decentralisation is a task for both the Congress and the Committee of the Regions

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (the Congress) and the EU’s Committee of the Regions (the CoR) should together stand up for decentralisation in the EU accession states, according to Peter Straub (Germany), President of the CoR. The President of the Baden-Württemberg Landtag also called on both organisations to build bridges, in the regional policy sphere, between the EU and its new neighbouring states outside the present external border of the European Union.

Strasbourg, 25 May 2005

Question: Where do you think the CoR’s main tasks lie now that the EU has expanded? And how do you envisage the post-enlargement role of the Congress?

Peter Straub: The first task of the CoR is to integrate the new members from the accession states and help them to bring their views into the EU's opinion-forming process. We also wish to start using delegates from these states as rapporteurs soon, thereby conferring vital tasks on them. “Regional weeks” in the new CoR building in Brussels will enable the individual nations, with their regional and local authorities, to introduce themselves. In the new states themselves, we shall actively stand up for decentralisation, because this concept makes a contribution to the democratisation process and thus promotes the European idea. The Congress specifically can be a valuable partner for the CoR in this, for it has acquired many years of experience in central and Eastern Europe, with its commitment to regional and local self-government.

Question: How do you view the relations between the enlarged EU and the new neighbouring states?

Peter Straub: The new external border must not, with all its monitoring and control measures, prevent the development of relations with these countries, which are, after all, members of the Council of Europe. The EU has made provision for a billion Euros in subsidies for these nations and their neighbouring EU regions up to the year 2006. But the main aim here cannot be just the gradual integration of these states into the EU's internal market. Equally important are the creation of an area of shared values and the achievement of social stability.

Question: What role can local and regional authorities play in this co-operation policy?

Peter Straub: It is precisely the CoR’s and the Congress’ vocation to create bridges in the regional policy sphere between the EU and its new neighbouring states. As these states are members of the Council of Europe, it falls to the Congress to play a particular role in this neighbourhood policy. Only when both our institutions have been involved will effective programmes of assistance for the sub-national authorities in those countries be possible. Our members are aware of the way in which subsidies can be used for specific purposes in their regions and programmes can be carried out according to a realistic timetable. Both Europe and the states must have more confidence in local and regional authorities in this respect. Furthermore, cross-border co-operation between individual regions is in fact the most effective way of achieving a fully tangible strengthening of the links between EU nations and neighbouring states.

Question: How do you view the prospects for co-operation between the CoR and the Congress?

Peter Straub: Ours are twin organisations, pursuing common interests, and we have carried out numerous projects together to promote regional and local self-government. The Congress/CoR contact group meets regularly. Together, we are calling for a clear statement of the significance of cross-border co-operation among sub-national authorities to be made in legal terms in the EU Constitution. The CoR and the Congress wish to organise joint seminars and conferences in the EU accession states.