Throughout the community territory are concentrated more than 200 regions. All of them with their own particularities, differences, and identities. Every three months they gather in conclave at the epicenter of community politics, Brussels, to defend the interests of their fellow citizens regarding all those files that their “big brothers” are negotiating between the Commission, the Parliament, and the Council.
Thus, the Committee of the Regions is witness to agreements that at the national political level would be difficult to imagine. This very week, during the debate on the redesign of the European water strategy, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, and the leader of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, joined forces to promote the voice of their territories “in the community institutions”.
The Andalusian leader defined the management of water resources as a matter of security and cohesion, which “will only be effective if designed from the regions and cities.” For his part, the Manchegan quipped that “the abuse of water today” will end up meaning “thirst for tomorrow”. A consensus that also extended to the leader of the Navarrese Executive, María Chivite, and to the Murcian president, Fernando López Miras. Both emphasized the need to modernize infrastructures “to ensure the success of European regulations.”
Spanish Representation in the Committee
As of today, Spain has twenty-one members in the Committee of the Regions, of which seventeen represent the autonomous communities and four to local entities. The members of the body must have a regional or local electoral mandate.
Its function is limited to issuing mandatory opinions in policies with territorial impact, such as cohesion, environment, employment or health.
In practice, the body is designed for these territories to be able to channel sectoral and territorial priorities towards European institutions. All of them aspire —without their mandate becoming binding— to influence the drafting of directives, regulations, and programs.
When conversing, without microphones in front, with some of the members of the autonomous delegations, it is quickly confirmed their ambition to have more weight in European conversations, an area in which often their role is relegated to a third institutional plane.
In the background, a paradox emerges. Despite not having direct legislative initiative in the Brussels framework, regions are in many cases responsible for enforcing a large part of the decisions adopted there.
In Spain, as the communities have legislative and executive powers, they are responsible for applying a substantial part of the European regulations. Hence, some territorial leaders defend the need to participate in its design to “ensure that it is applicable and financeable in each city”.
The role of the CARUE
Furthermore, the Conference for European Union Related Affairs (CARUE) is responsible for coordinating the opinions of territorial representatives so that their participation in community decision-making is more effective.
In the Spanish case, along with internal coordination, this mechanism serves to form the State's position before meetings of the Council of the European Union and decide which autonomous community assumes representation when appropriate.
What is certain is that the autonomous communities have another additional asset to participate in European conversations. Since 2004, they can integrate into the Spanish delegation in certain formations of the Council of the European Union and in some technical working groups.
In practice, this participation is articulated through a regional councilor who represents the set of communities in matters of their competence.
Regional alliances around water
Taking advantage of their presence in the European capital, this very week six Spanish communities joined more than ten regions from the rest of the Union in the creation of the new “Alliance of European Regions for Water Resilience”.
The initiative, promoted by the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, aims to serve as a lever to boost investments in the water sector, “while sharing experiences and knowledge among European regions,” according to Fernando López Miras.
Sources from the Generalitat Valenciana, consulted by Demócrata, share the vision of those who advocate for greater territorial unity when negotiating with European institutions. In the case of water resources, its vice president José Díez believes that this coordination allows for greater institutional attention in the face of “a very relevant water problem”.
Among the rest of the territories that are part of this new alliance are Carinthia (Austria), Flanders (Belgium), the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Greece), Hesse, Styria and Upper Austria (Germany), Lower Austria (Austria), New Aquitaine and Occitania (France), the South Moravian Region (Czechia) and Greater Poland (Poland).
The budgetary debate: the mother of all discussions
Beyond these sectoral debates, the elephant in the room of the Committee of the Regions is the next Multiannual Financial Framework, that is, the long-term European budget.
In the European Parliament there is almost a unanimous rejection of the idea of merging European policies into a single plan per Member State. Parliamentary sources warn that this model would generate uncertainty for final beneficiaries and would jeopardize pillars such as territorial cohesion, social rights, or key programs like the Common Agricultural Policy, especially relevant for many regions.
Therefore, the Community Executive is immersed in the task of reassuring the territories that fear losing part of the funds they receive. According to the Budget Commissioner, Piotr Serafin, it is not about reformulating the budgetary frameworks because they don't work, but because “we live in a totally different context”. “We want regions to be at the heart of cohesion policies”, he assured before the Committee of the Regions.
The regional delegations in Brussels
This nod from the Commission to the regions evidences a thesis defended by those who demand greater territorial presence in the European corridors. Their participation in this kind of debates allows to compete for resources and defend particularities, preventing excessively centralized decisions from ignoring territorial inequalities.
The seventeen Spanish autonomous communities have delegations in Brussels, offices that are used to follow European legislation, seek community funds, and participate in regional cooperation networks.
Spain is one of the Member States where regions have greater political weight within the State, due to the autonomous constitutional system. This reality reinforces its institutional activity in the European capital.
In addition, these offices also serve to guide business, sectoral or civil organizations when they need to address the European authorities, taking advantage of their networks of contacts and knowledge of institutional functioning.
The Committee of the Regions reflects one of the most unique characteristics of European governance: the coexistence between supranational institutions and territories with their own political identities. Although its formal role is limited to issuing consultative opinions, its activity reveals an increasingly evident reality in Brussels: European policies are largely applied at the regional and local level.
Therefore, the presence of the regions —whether through the Committee, CARUE, or their permanent delegations in Brussels— has become a key tool to influence decisions that, although negotiated at a continental scale, end up directly impacting the daily lives of European citizens