COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS TRIES TO DEFINE NEW ROLE.

The Committee of the Regions' newly won institutional powers were examined at a special meeting of the body's Bureau in Bonn on May 7. The gathering of top representatives from the European Union's consultative assembly on regional affairs came just days after the EU's Amsterdam Treaty came into force, granting the CoR the right to be consulted on five new areas: environment, employment, vocational training, transport and social matters. This is in addition to the CoR's already established areas of competence which are structural and cohesion funding, trans-European infrastructure networks, public health, education, youth and culture. The Bonn meeting discussed the way forward now that the CoR has its new powers, including autonomy from the EU's Economic and Social Committee. The Bureau...