CoR - Priorities

As we emerge from a crisis with serious social and financial consequences for the people of Europe, the next years will be key in the process of European integration.

On the CoR agenda, challenging policies to overcome the situation are taking shape, including the Europe 2020 Strategy for economic recovery and job creation, negotiations on the future European budget and cross-border cooperation.

The CoR's top 5 priorities for action (2012-2015)

Priority 1 - Deliver on Europe 2020 with local and regional authorities

Europe 2020: Economic recovery and job creation: To implement the Europe 2020 strategy with the contribution of local and regional authorities (LRAs).
Proposals for a new generation of funding policies: To pore over proposals for new funding policies and continue to issue opinions on the relevant EU draft legislation.
Single Market Act: To release Europe’s growth potential, it is necessary to ensure that the "missing links and bottlenecks" of the Single Market Act are put in place.

Priority 2 - Ensure the ‘better investment’ role of LRA

Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF): To advocate for a 'strong' European budget, such as avoiding major cuts in the EU’s cohesion policy, or finding a more efficient and transparent way of financing EU policies that contributes to an easy delivery with maximum effect on future EU spending.
Economic and budgetary coordination: To support LRAs by reporting on their current financial challenges and defending their rights to European and national decision-makers.

Priority 3 - Engaging with citizens and debating Europe

As a result of the European Year of Citizens in 2013, a debate will emerge across Europe on what it means to be a European citizen:

Debating Europe: To contribute to the EU Citizens’ rights agenda and promote participative democracy instruments.
Decentralised communication: To develop communication initiatives (OPEN DAYS, EuroPCom, etc.) with other institutional key actors to overcome the information gap between Brussels and the LRAs.

Read more on the European Year of Citizens 2013.

Priority 4 - Developing the territorial dimension within EU external relations

Internationalisation role of LRAs: To promote the idea of LRAs as key partners in the ‘global governance’ debate and to support the action of LRAs, particularly in enlargement and the EU’s neighbourhood policy but
also in relation to other strategic external partners.
Strengthening its networks: To advocate strong cross-border cooperation instruments, not only between Member States but also with and between neighbourhood countries through the CoR's main international cooperation working groups, ARLEM and CORLEAP.

Priority 5 - A strong CoR in a new Europe

20th anniversary celebration of the Committee of the Regions: For the occasion of the CoR 20th anniversary in 2014, a special event will be scheduled alongside a regular plenary session. This will be a moment to look back, take stock, and set new forward-looking priorities for the next mandate of the CoR.
Multilevel governance (MLG), decentralisation and subsidiarity: The Cor will continue to play a key role in promoting subsidiarity, better regulation and MLG.