The work of the European Committee of the Regions.
Date: 2023-10-11
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: European Committee of the Regions, principle of subsidiarity, regional cooperation, regional policy

EN

Catalogue N°: QG-02-23-086-EN-N
ISBN: 978-92-895-2975-4
Doi: 10.2863/436835

© European Union, 2021

Edited by the Directorate for Communication of the European Committee of the Regions
August 2021 
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Netherlands
12 provinces
355 municipalities

Belgium

Ireland

26 county councils, of which three are 
in Dublin (Fingal, Dún Laoghaire-
Rathdown and South Dublin)
3 city councils
2 city and county councils

France

18 regions (13 metropolitan and 5 
overseas regions)
101 departments
35 358 municipalities

Portugal

(Azores and Madeira)
308 municipalities
3 091 civil parishes (Freguesias)

Spain

17 self-governing regions
2 autonomous cities
(Ceuta and Melilla)
50 provinces
8 131 municipalities

Italy

20 regions (15 ordinary regions, 5 
special-status regions)
2 self-governing provinces (Bolzano/
Bozen and Trento)
110 provinces
15 metropolitan areas
7960 municipalities

Luxembourg
3 districts
12 cantons
102 municipalities

Germany

16 federal states
401 counties (294 Landkreise,
107 kreisfreie Städte)
11 054 municipalities

Denmark
5 regions
2 special-status regions: Faroe Islands 
and Greenland
98 municipalities

Sweden

21 regions
 290 municipalties

Finland

Estonia

19 provinces including the 
autonomous region of Åland Islands 
310 municipalities

municipalities and 15 urban 
municipalities)

Latvia

9 cities
110 municipalities

Lithuania

Poland

16 regions
314 counties
2 478 municipalities

Czech Republic
14 regions
6 258 municipalities

Slovakia

8 self-governing regions
79 administrative districts
2 926 municipalities

Romania

42 departments including the capital, 
Bucharest
103 larger cities
217 towns
2 861 rural municipalities

Bulgaria

6 planning regions
28 districts
265 municipalities

Hungary

19 counties
3175 municipalities

Cyprus

Austria
9 federal states
95 districts (including 15 cities)
2 098 municipalities

Slovenia

12 regions
212 municipalities

Malta

6 regional committees
68 municipalities

Croatia

21 counties (including the capital 
Zagreb)
128 towns
428 municipalities

Greece

13 regions
7 decentralised administrations
325 municipalities

CanariasGuyaneGuadeloupeMartiniqueAçoresMadeiraRéunionMayotteNAT
Natural
resources

COTER
Territorial cohesion policy
and EU budget

The President
The President
Apostolos Tzitzikostas 
(Governor of the Region 
of Central Macedonia)

Term of office: 2 and 1/2 years
• leads the CoR’s work
• chairs its plenary sessions
• acts as the CoR’s
 official representative.

Elected
Elected
President
President
February 2020
February 2020

The Bureau

The First
The First
Vice-President
Vice-President
Vasco Alves Cordeiro
(Member of the Regional 
Government of the Azores)

Term of office: 2 and 1/2 years
• leads the CoR’s work in tandem
 with the President.

27

Vice-Presidents
(1 per member-state)

6*

1
First Vice-President

Conference of Presidents
Conference of Presidents
The Conference of Presidents 
(CoP) consists of the President, 
the First Vice-President and 
the Presidents of all political 
groups. The CoP prepares 
the work and facilitates 
the search for political 
consensus on decisions 
to be taken by the 
other constitutive 
bodies (the Plenary 
Assembly, the 
Bureau, and the 
commissions).

26

members reflecting national
and political balances

Presidents Political Groups

1

President

Elected
Elected
First
First
Vice-President
Vice-President
February 2020
February 2020

members61

* The Greens have
two co-presidents

The European
Committee of the Regions is
the EU’s assembly of regional and local 
representatives.
Since 1994 its mission has been to represent and promote 
the interests of local and regional authorities in relation to the 
European decision-making process.
From its Brussels headquarters the European Committee of the 
Regions has thus helped to ensure ever closer union of the 
European nations and territories with decisions being 
taken at the closest possible level to ordinary 
Europeans, in line with the subsidiarity 
principle.

329meet 5 to 6 times
a year

members

9 

Networks
and Platforms

EGTC

European
Grouping of Territorial 
Cooperation

that enable regions and cities to 
contribute to the EU debate and to 
exchange experiences and good 
practices in specific EU policies.
The networks are designed to 
address issues with high stakes for 
regions and cities.
The CoR is also a member of 
the Covenant of Mayors.

27

National
delegations

Members meet in their national delegations before plenary 
sessions and meetings of the political groups to discuss common 
positions.

France, Germany 
and Italy     

24

CORLEAP

Conference
of the Regional and
Local Authorities
for the Eastern
Partnership

Political

Groups6
Groups6 Political
6
6

ECON
Economic
policy

SEDEC
Social policy, education,
employment, research and culture

specialised
specialised
Commissions
Commissions
100
100
members
members
each
each

CIVEX
Citizenship, governance,
institutional and external affairs

ENVE
Environment, climate
change and energy

A seventh commission (CFAA) advises the Bureau
on administrative and financial
questions

The
Secretary-General
Appointed for five years by the Bureau.

Directs the CoR administration and is responsible for implementing Bureau 

decisions and the smooth running of the administration.

Petr Blížkovský was appointed Secretary-General of the European 

Committee of the Regions on 7 October 2019.
Secretariat-general

Responsible for ensuring that plenary sessions, commission meetings 

and other political activities of CoR members run smoothly. It also has 
the task of promoting the European Committee of the Regions’ 

image and supporting its members’ communication activities.  

It consists of seven directorates: 

Members, Plenaries, Strategy – 

The
plenary
assembly
Members of the CoR meet in plenary 
session in Brussels to discuss and 
adopt opinions, reports and 
resolutions. MEPs, European 
commissioners, members of the 
Council and representatives of 
the EU presidency are 
invited to the plenary to 
discuss issues of 
particular 
concern to 
regions and 
cities.

REGHUB

Network
of Regional Hubs for 
EU Policy Implementation 
Review (RegHub)

ARLEM

Euro-Mediterranean
Regional and Local
Assembly

Cities and 
Regions for 
Integration

Subsidiarity
Monitoring
Network

Romania

Denmark, Finland,
Ireland, Lithuania,
Croatia and Slovakia

9

6

Young Elected
Politicians
programme
(YEPs)

Portal
of Decentralised
Cooperation

Europe 2020
Monitoring
Platform

Cyprus and Luxembourg

21

15

12

7

5

Poland and Spain

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Czech Republic, Greece,
Hungary, the Netherlands,
Portugal and Sweden

Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia

Malta

Legislative Work 1 – Legislative Work 2 – 

Communication – Human Resources and 
Finance – Logistics* – Translation*

* (the latter two being shared with the 
European Economic and Social 

Committee). 

There are also the political 

group secretariats and an 

internal audit 

department.

members by national delegation

The work of the European Committee of the Regions

Opinions
Other EU institutions regularly consult the CoR when drawing up legislative texts (directives, regulations, 
etc.) on areas affecting local and regional authorities; it may also issue an opinion on its own initiative. 
After its adoption by the CoR commission, the draft opinion is discussed at the plenary session. Once it has 
been adopted, the opinion is sent to all the European institutions and published in the Official Journal of 
the European Union.
————————————————————————————————
Resolutions
Resolutions enable the Committee to express its view on important and topical issues. The Committee's 
political groups can also submit resolutions.
————————————————————————————————
Outlook Opinions & Impact Reports
The CoR’s work is not only to react to legislative proposals but also to provide input based on members' 
experience for future EU policy development. Similarly, the European Commission may ask the CoR to 
draw up an impact report. As the name suggests, these reports serve to evaluate the impact of a policy at 
local or regional level.
————————————————————————————————
Promoting the Subsidiarity Principle
The Lisbon Treaty confirms the CoR's right to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union to 
safeguard its prerogatives and the subsidiarity principle.
————————————————————————————————
Events
As a meeting place for regions and cities, the CoR organises conferences, seminars and exhibitions in 
cooperation with local and regional partners and other EU institutions. 
•  During the European Week of Regions and Cities, the CoR has welcomed to Brussels thousands of 

participants who take part in lively discussions or seek partners to collaborate on joint projects.

•  EuroPCom, the European Public Communication Conference, is the annual meeting point of communi-
cation experts from local, regional, national and European authorities, as well as private communi-
cation agencies, NGOs and academia.

•  Every two years, the CoR holds a European Summit of Regions and Cities to discuss the main challenges 

facing the European Union.

————————————————————————————————
Studies and other publications
The CoR produces studies on various aspects of the local and regional dimension drawn up with the help 
of outside experts. The CoR also produces publications for both regional and local decision-makers and 
the general public.

You can find further information here:

The CoR’s Areas of Responsibility

The CoR is entitled to express its views on all major issues of local and regional relevance, on 
which the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission are 
required to consult it.  These various issues account for two thirds of the legislative output of 
the European Union.