Bilbao (EFE).- The European regions with legislative powers RLEG have asked to participate in the direction of the EU and reverse its recentralization.
The RLEG, which brings together 16 European regions, is holding an ordinary meeting in Bilbao in which a declaration is approved, under the presidency of the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, and with the presence of the Minister of Flanders, Jan Jambon.
The declaration defends that the “common” solutions of the EU to face the latest crises, such as the pandemic or the war in Ukraine, and the challenges of the digital and ecological transition, cannot be at the cost of “weakening” self-government and the powers of the regions.
“It is time to reverse the recentralization trend and call for a more participatory governance,” the text states.
Regions in the EU
Likewise, he believes that the “democratic legitimacy” of the Union and the “involvement” of the citizenry depends on recognizing the regions as the closest institutions.
For this reason, they demand the “full participation” of the regions in EU decision-making, especially in matters in which they have jurisdiction within their States, through an inter-institutional forum to “influence” previously the design of the measures.
The lehendakari has considered it “more necessary than ever” to create a new model of European governance with “voice and decision-making capacity” of “small countries, nations or regions with legislative capacity”.
“Europe cannot put aside those who are a little smaller just because they are,” he added.
“We demand that the regions with legislative powers and constitutional nationalities be formally recognized as having a unique role in European governance”, said Urkullu.
The lehendakari recalled that 45% of the EU population lives in the 71 autonomous regions that exist in seven of the states that make up the EU.
For his part, the President of Flanders has criticized the “too centralized” approach of the EU recovery funds, which wants a single interlocutor per State for effectiveness “but produces the opposite effect, less effectiveness and less efficiency.”
“There is a setback and very little account is taken of the regions,” denounced Jambon, who has argued that the democratic legitimacy of the European Union is made “from the bottom up, with the support of the regions.”
In his opinion, despite the moment of crisis that the entire EU is going through, “it is not so difficult” to increase the participation of the regions in decision-making in the Union if there is “political will”.
The president of the Executive Council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, has thanked by videoconference – he has suspended the trip to Bilbao due to the political situation in France – the participation in the RLEG although it does not yet have autonomy or legislative powers, which he hopes to achieve in the coming months in the negotiations that it maintains with the French Government.
Simeoni has considered that reinforcing the link with the EU goes through the “human communities that represent the regions”.
The RLEG in Europe
The RLEG will present the declaration approved in Bilbao in Brussels as part of an operation to try to promote the adhesion to this group of more self-governing regions, especially some of the German lander.
Currently, the Aland Islands, Azores, Madeira, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Catalonia, Euskadi, Corsica, Sardinia, Carinthia, Flanders, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Piedmont and Voralberg are part of the RLEG.
This declaration will be sent to the EU authorities, the Committee of the Regions and the Confederation of Local and Regional Authorities of the European Council.