Who should apply and how?
The Network addresses regional and local politicians who are elected representatives in a government, parliament or assembly of a region, city, town, province, municipality or village. By applying to the Network, the politician confirms that they have been elected to their respective assembly to represent their constituency. One or several politicians from the same assembly can carry the title "Member of the CoR Network of Regional and Local EU Councillors" for the duration of their mandate.
The Network is a voluntary and bottom-up project. There is no selection process: all registered politicians become part of the Network.
What does the Network offer?
The CoR offers the members of the Network:
- specific information through newsletters, briefings, a dedicated webpage on the CoR website and the private group on the platform Futurium "CoR EU Councillors" destined to become the main information and event forum;
- invitations to CoR events, links to political debates at the CoR;
- exchanges and networking with CoR members/alternates and other EU Councillors.
The Network does not include financial support from the CoR.
How can EU Councillors work together with the CoR?
They can actively contribute to CoR activities, which include, for example, holding EU-related events in their local and regional Councils, organising debates with citizens, participating in consultations and surveys of the CoR and events such as the annual European Week of Regions and Cities or the regular European Summits of the CoR. Moreover, members of the Network can contact the CoR administration in their own language to ask questions, request material or help with the organisation of events. EU Councillors can also contact COR members from their region or their Member State to ask about the current work in the CoR or in their region. Members can decide to become mentors to EU Councillors.
Futurium
Futurium is an online platform of the European Commission which offers interaction spaces (groups or communities) where members can post and comment on content, share documents, images, videos and events. The interface is multilingual and offers an instant translation tool that allows everyone to read the content and express themselves in their own language (official EU language).
While anyone can access Futurium, an EU login account is needed to join a community. Before a user can post in a group, he or she should be a member of the group. In public groups (https://futurium.ec.europa.eu/en/digital-compass) anyone can see and read what is posted but only members of the group can comment or create content. In private groups, only members can interact and see what is posted in the group.
EU Councillors is set as a private group, shared with the European Commission's pilot project Building Europe with Local Councillors, where COR and EC administrators can post news, events, masterclasses, briefings and useful documents.
It contains the private subgroup CoR EU Councillors where Councillors can post and comment on content: they can post their own events, news, documents, good practices, photos or video-links. To receive an invitation to join this group on Futurium, one must be an elected politician on the local or regional level and be a registered member of the CoR EU Councillors group.