Resolution — Improving the functioning of the European Union: Lisbon Treaty and beyond
Date: 2015-07-08
Institutions: Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs, European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: Treaty of Lisbon, deepening of the European Union, drafting of EU law, institutional structure, interinstitutional relations (EU), revision of the Treaty (EU)








C_2015313EN.01000901.xml










22.9.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 313/9





Resolution — Improving the functioning of the European Union: Lisbon Treaty and beyond
(2015/C 313/03)
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,






1.


considers that the legitimacy and future development of the EU are crucially dependent on the Union's capacity to act effectively to meet the economic, political and social challenges before us and to better engage with citizens at all levels; recalls that this requires the active participation of the local, regional and subnational levels in EU governance; insists, therefore, that the Committee of the Regions must take part in the debates on the future of Europe, including its full involvement in a future Convention;










2.


welcomes the European Parliament's decision to launch this debate now and to consult the CoR, thus strengthening the reinforced political relationship between both institutions; welcomes the opportunity to contribute to making the EU more transparent, accountable, inclusive and effective; reiterates the need to rebuild citizens' confidence in the EU's capacity to act to improve their lives and protect and promote European values with due respect for national and regional competencies and identities;










3.


considers it important to create opportunities for discussion in close cooperation with the European Parliament on the possible changes, developments and adjustments of the current institutional structure of the European Union that will allow the CoR to be not only a consultative organ, but more integrated as a key player in the European legislative process;










4.


underlines the importance of citizenship and the fundamental rights on which the EU is based, and of working towards a stronger European representative and participatory democracy in Europe and at the various legislative levels of the European Union, the Member States and the regions in accordance with multilevel governance; calls for a revision and simplification of the European Citizens Initiative to make it more user-friendly and accessible to citizens; highlights the need to introduce a legal obligation for the European Commission not only to examine but to open a debate followed by a vote in the Council of the EU and the European Parliament on a successful ECI which gathers 1 million signatures, and suggests exploring other means of facilitating the exercise of participating in the EU decision-making;










5.


reiterates that it is essential to make the EU budget less dependent on direct contributions from the Member States and to review the EU's own resources without introducing additional levies;










6.


stresses its commitment to a European Union which is capable of acting in foreign and security matters as a force to promote security, stability, democracy and the rule of law; underlines the key role which local, regional and subnational authorities play not least via the platforms CORLEAP and ARLEM, in their contacts with non-EU countries on crucial policy issues such as: migration challenges and opportunities, employment policies, enlargement, the sustainable use of natural resources, energy, promoting innovation, culture, global environmental challenges, promoting development, an effective neighbourhood policy and sustainable urban policies;
The Committee of the Regions therefore, within the current Treaty framework:










7.


considers that the existing instruments provided for by the Lisbon Treaty and its protocols still have a lot of untapped potential that can improve the functioning of the EU on behalf of its citizens, including the use of the subsidiarity and proportionality monitoring provisions, the ECI and the ‘passerelle clauses’, and where necessary, the use of enhanced cooperation;










8.


welcomes the publication of the Better Regulation Package on 19 May 2015, but emphasises that the ‘better regulation’ agenda must not become a pretext for avoiding or abolishing necessary legislation; demands that a clear reference to the CoR be included in the draft Inter-institutional Agreement on better law making in recognition of the increased competence of the CoR under the Lisbon Treaty;










9.


calls for determined strengthening of the role of the Committee of the Regions in order to be able to directly exploit the knowledge and experience of the regional and local representatives in the legislative cycle and in the EU decision-making process, and in particular:






—


to be fully involved in the strategic planning process of the legislative cycle;










—


to participate in the pre-drafting phase of legislative proposals, including through territorial impact assessments;










—


to be given the status of observer with speaking rights in Council working parties dealing with policy areas where consulting the Committee is mandatory;










—


to be given the status of observer with speaking rights in trilogue negotiations in areas where consulting the Committee is mandatory;










—


to be able to put oral and written questions to the European executive regarding its political recommendations;














10.


believes that the CoR should in particular be actively involved in all discussions relating to economic, social and territorial cohesion. It therefore proposes:






—


the creation of a specific Council formation for EU Cohesion Policy and other financial instruments relating to investment;










—


that the CoR become a recognised observer with speaking rights at meetings of the Council dealing with EU Cohesion Policy and areas related to investment in Europe;














11.


recalls that the task of monitoring compliance of EU legislation with the subsidiarity principle has been extended to include a role for the CoR and for regional parliaments with legislative powers, in close cooperation with national parliaments; in order for the CoR to contribute more effectively to the monitoring of subsidiarity and the overall quality of EU legislation, the CoR calls for further efforts in:






—


carrying out territorial impact assessments in the ex-ante phase;










—


monitoring, at local regional and subnational level and on behalf of the EU, of the transposition of EU legislation in the ex-post phase;










—


improving the Early Warning System by i.e. extending the timeframe to make it also fully operational for regional actors;










—


strengthening the role of regional legislative assemblies in the early warning procedure, making obligatory, and not discretionary, the consultation by national parliaments on matters of regional competence;










—


exploring possibilities together with the EU member states to grant regional and subnational parliaments with legislative powers the fully-fledged power to issue reasoned opinions in regard to the principle of subsidiarity as if they were national parliaments (cf. Declaration 51 of the Lisbon Treaty);














12.


recommends that all levels of government work together to achieve a lasting solution to the European sovereign debt and the ensuing economic and social crises and to attract investments in order to enhance competitiveness and job creation; recalls that local and regional authorities have suffered greatly during the crisis and demands respect for the Multilevel Governance model to ensure that this does not happen in the future; agrees in this context that the obligation to move those elements of economic governance which have been concluded outside the Treaties into the EU Treaty framework by 2016 provides an opportunity to address a limited number of other questions related to the future of the EU;
In the context of a future revision of the EU Treaties, the CoR therefore:










13.


calls to be given full membership in the future convention as the current institutions;










14.


proposes to consider a gradual institutionalisation of the CoR and its transformation into an European Senate of the regions and local autonomies as a Chamber of sober second thought; the European Senate would enhance the coordination among national and subnational institutions carrying out the subsidiarity scrutiny vis-à-vis the EU institutions, would be requested to give its consent on EU legislative dossiers in the field of cohesion policy and would be entitled to put forward to the European Commission proposals to adopt or amend EU legislation in the field of EU non-exclusive competence;










15.


suggests that legislative proposals relating to territorial cohesion be subject to the consent of the CoR; furthermore, would like to see its remit for mandatory consultation strengthened, by making the consultation of the CoR an integral part of the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ (Art. 294 TFEU);










16.


proposes that a horizontal clause be introduced in the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union that would require the CoR to be consulted in areas of shared competence on measures coordinating economic and employment policies and in areas of support, coordination and ancillary action; recalls that the territorial dimension must be better considered in any future proposals on deepening the EMU and major dossiers must be subject to an ex-ante assessment of their territorial impact;










17.


in any case, calls for a mandatory consultation of the Committee of the Regions on issues relevant to local and regional authorities concerning measures that affect the establishment or functioning of the internal market (Art 115 TFEU) and in other policy areas which have a direct relevance to the local and regional level, such as:






—


agricultural policy (Art 43 TFEU),










—


the free movement of workers (Art 46 TFEU),










—


the freedom of establishment (Art 50 TFEU),










—


the liberalisation of specific services (Art 59 TFEU),










—


migration (Art 79 TFEU),










—


state aids (Art 109 TFEU),










—


industrial policy (Art 173.3 TFEU)










—


trade policy (Art 207 TFEU);














18.


suggests also reviewing the ‘minimum one month’ deadline for consultations of the CoR by the EP, Council or Commission (Art 307.2) which has proven impractical;










19.


instructs its president to forward this resolution to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Commission and the president of the European Council.





Brussels, 8 July 2015


The President of the European Committee of the Regions

Markku MARKKULA