The Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional & External Affairs (CIVEX) is responsible for coordinating the Committee of the Regions' work on issues which include justice and home affairs, fundamental rights and freedoms, smart regulation and the reduction of administrative burdens, citizenship and broader institutional issues such as governance and devolution. The Commission also intensively deals with the Union's external dimension, focusing on neighbourhood and enlargement countries, and decentralised cooperation for development.
The opinions discussed and adopted in the CIVEX Commission form the basis of the CoR's position on local and regional responses to the issues mentioned above, through which the Committee seeks to influence the wider EU institutional debate as well as the legislative and policy agenda in order to make sure that the challenges faced at the local and regional level – and the responses to them – are understood and taken on board.
Competences:
- Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
- Immigration policy, asylum and visas
- EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
- Active citizenship
- Devolution
- Governance
- Better law making (including the reduction of administrative burdens)
- Implementation of the EU Treaty
- Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership and EU Mediterranean Policy
- Decentralised cooperation for development
- Enlargement (dealing with global issues not covered by the working groups of the Bureau)