First vice-president Karl-Heinz Lambertz leads the CoR delegation at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga.
The Heads of State and Government of 28 EU Member States and six Eastern Partnership countries gather at the fourth Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga this week. The participation of local and regional levels of government will be assured by the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), represented by Karl-Heinz Lambertz, first vice-president of the European Committee of the Regions, and Emin Yeritsyan, co-chair of CORLEAP.
Enhancing cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries to promote stability and development in the EU’s neighbourhood is among the priorities of the current Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU, and this week’s summit is set to reaffirm the strategic importance of the Eastern Partnership as part of European Neighbourhood Policy. Following the guidelines established at the previous EaP summit in Vilnius in 2013, it should also recall the significant role of multi-level governance, local democracy and public participation in pursuing the goals of the Eastern Partnership. “In Riga we will confirm the contribution of regional and local authorities to building positive partnerships and fruitful territorial cooperation, including cross-border and macro-regional projects. Reforms to promote administrative and financial decentralisation and consequent capacity building measures must be assured in the future of the Eastern Partnership”, said CoR first vice-president Karl-Heinz Lambertz.
In the recommendations for the Heads of State and Government, adopted at the CORLEAP annual meeting in April, local and regional leaders call for the scope of the Local Administration Facility (LAF) to be extended to the Eastern Neighbourhood, in order to facilitate the exchange of best practice in decentralisation reforms, capacity building and institutional efficiency. Ahead of the meeting, Emin Yeritsyan, president of the Union of Communities of Armenia, stated: “We are encouraging a multi-stakeholder approach to local and regional development in the Eastern Partnership countries, based on close cooperation between local and regional authorities, civil society organisations and citizens. Specific programmes should provide direct and accessible support for local and regional authorities in partner countries.”
CORLEAP was established by the Committee of the Regions in 2011 to bring a local and regional dimension to the EU’s cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. CORLEAP has 36 members; 18 representing the EU and 18 representing the partner countries.
The Committee of the Regions
The European Committee of the Regions is the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives from all 28 Member States. Created in 1994 following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, its mission is to involve regional and local authorities in the EU’s decision-making process and to inform them about EU policies. The European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission consult the Committee in policy areas affecting regions and cities. To sit on the Committee of the Regions, all of its 350 members and 350 alternates must either hold an electoral mandate or be politically accountable to an elected assembly in their home regions and cities.
