CEMR President calls the Juncker Commission to respect the Treaty of Lisbon by truly including the local dimension The presidents of seven European networks of local and regional authorities* met with the European Commission president José Manuel Barroso on 18 September in Brussels. This meeting aimed to discuss the European elections results, the implementation of the Europe 2020 and the cooperation established under the two Barroso mandates.
rnCEMR president and mayor of Almere, Annemarie Jorritsma, called the upcoming Commission to work closely with local government to contribute to a ‘smart and better regulation’. “The Lisbon Treaty requires the Commission to “consult widely” before tabling legislative proposals and take into account the local dimension of the latter. The Commission is also supposed to assess any burden, financial or administrative, falling upon all levels of governance, including local and regional. Unfortunately, five years after the Treaty entered into force, the Commission has still not established any formalised mechanism to respect such requirements”, stated Annemarie Jorritsma, “We have high expectations with regard to the Juncker Commission and the full implementation of the Treaty in particular in relation to proportionality and subsidiarity provisions. In this regard we expect a lot of the new Commissioner in charge of Better Regulation”.
*Council of Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the Assembly of European Regions, the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions, EUROCITIES, the Association of European Border Regions, Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies and the Conference of European Regions with Legislative Powers.
Climate, Sustainable Finance Officer
