​​The CoR President and representatives of the 20 regions selected for the project will be available for media interviews to present and discuss the initiative.

The European Union is often criticised for producing too many, too bureaucratic laws, which can be seen as interfering with the lives of citizens and business. The European Commission has responded to this criticism by giving priority to “Better Regulation”, aiming at avoiding unnecessary burdens and red tape, encouraging citizens and stakeholders’ contribution to policy-making, and ensuring that EU action is based on evidence and clearly assessed impacts.

Considering that two-thirds of EU legislation are implemented at local and regional level, cities and regions have valuable first-hand experience in applying EU rules on the ground. As the institutional voice of regions and cities in the EU, the CoR is uniquely placed to collate the experience from cities and regions in the implementation of European law, and channel it back to the EU legislators.

With this in mind, the Committee is setting up a pilot project (2019-2020) consisting of a Network of “Regional Hubs” (contact points) to monitor and assess the implementation of EU legislation locally. The initiative was one of the recommendations of the European Commission’s Subsidiarity Task Force and is part of the “New way of working” advocated by the Task Force.

Following a call for applications and based on a set of specific criteria, the Committee has selected 20 regions to serve as regional hubs during the pilot phase of the project. See the list of participating regions​

The Network will start its work focussing on three EU policy areas having significant impact at local level: public procurement, air quality and cross-border health-care.​