COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS REJECTS SPLIT PLANS.

The Committee of the Regions' governing body will issue a declaration on the role of the constitutional regions in the EU decision-making process at an extraordinary meeting on October 26. These are the regions which, because in some Member States' constitutions, have legislative powers: they are the German and Austrian Lander, the autonomous Spanish communities and the Belgian regions. It is an open secret that they are unhappy with the influence that the CoR gives them over the European decision-making process. Indeed, their joint initiatives outside this framework have been multiplying recently (the next will take place very shortly: a conference of the constitutional regions on November 16 in Liege). The Committee says it respects the wish expressed by certain constitutional regions to "step up their co-operation" and to "further harmonise their European policies". The Committee even regards it as a "legitimate and efficient means" of improving the organisation of the Committee's work. But it also underlines the fact that the Treaty established the Committee as "the only EU organ representing all local and regional organisations" and that "it alone is in a position to represent the regions and local authorities of Europe in a broad manner."The Committee has invited these regions...