Assembly of European Regions | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
 | |
| Secretariat | Strasbourg and Brussels |
| Official working language | English |
| Type | Association |
| Member regions [1] | |
| Leaders | |
• President | Albert Castellanos [2] |
• Secretary General | Christian Spahr [3] |
Website aer | |
The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together regions from 25 countries and 15 interregional organizations, AER is a forum for interregional cooperation. [4]
On 15 June 1985, at Louvain-la-Neuve (Walloon Brabant), 47 Regions and 9 interregional organizations founded the Council of the Regions of Europe (CRE), which would later become the Assembly of European Regions in November 1987 at the second General meeting of the Regions of Europe in Brussels.
The year 1985 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Youth Year. The same year AER launched its first programme, Eurodyssey, designed to promote and encourage youth mobility.
In 1990, AER's Tabula Regionum Europae released the inaugural map depicting Europe not solely as a collection of countries but as regions. The following year, the principle of subsidiarity emerged as AER's flagship initiative, advocating for the involvement of regions in European and national decision-making. Its impact was swiftly recognized, culminating in its inclusion in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992.
The creation of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in 1994 and the Chamber of the Regions in the framework of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) in 1994, exemplified a victory for AER in advocating for the regions in Europe.
In 1995, AER launched a campaign to promote regionalism in Europe. As a result, 300 AER members adopted in 1996 the Declaration on Regionalism in Europe immediately initializing a reference document for new and developing regions. [4]
In 2002, AER presented its position on the “Future of Europe” to the European Convention. AER actively contributed to the drafting of the European Constitution, demonstrating strong political involvement. The final text included all AER proposals, namely
In 2008, AER established the Youth Regional Network, Europe's first and only platform of regional youth councils, parliaments, and organizations.
According to the AER statutes, in principle the term "region" refers to a territorial authority existing at the level immediately below that of the central government, with its own political representation in the form of an elected regional assembly.
Member regions of the Assembly of European Regions are as follows: [5]
As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, AER suspended Russian members. [6]
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region. The party has generally limited its membership to centre-left and left-wing parties; therefore, only a fraction of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA.
Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization.
The European Union created a Committee of the Regions to represent Regions of Europe as the layer of EU government administration directly below the nation-state level. The committee has its headquarters in Brussels.
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area, thus granting them a higher level of autonomy.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework.
Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as "the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level". The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, neuropsychology, cybernetics, management and in military command. The OED adds that the term "subsidiarity" in English follows the early German usage of "Subsidiarität". More distantly, it is derived from the Latin verb subsidio, and the related noun subsidium.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the fisheries policy of the European Union (EU). It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions. In 2004 it had a budget of €931 million, approximately 0.75% of the EU budget.
Regionalism is a political ideology that seeks to increase the political power, influence and self-determination of the people of one or more subnational regions. It focuses on the "development of a political or social system based on one or more" regions, and/or the national, normative, or economic interests of a specific region, group of regions or another subnational entity, gaining strength from or aiming to strengthen the "consciousness of and loyalty to a distinct region with a homogeneous population", similarly to nationalism. More specifically, "regionalism refers to three distinct elements: movements demanding territorial autonomy within unitary states; the organization of the central state on a regional basis for the delivery of its policies including regional development policies; political decentralization and regional autonomy".
The politics of Europe deals with the continually evolving politics within the continent of Europe. It is a topic far more detailed than other continents due to a number of factors including the long history of nation states in the region as well as the modern day trend towards increased political unity amongst the European states.
The Baltic Assembly (BA) is a regional organisation that promotes intergovernmental cooperation between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It attempts to find a common position in relation to many international issues, including economic, political and cultural issues. The decisions of the assembly are advisory.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the pan-European political assembly representing local and regional authorities from the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe. Its role is to promote local and regional democracy, improve local and regional governance and strengthen authorities' self-government, according to the principles laid down in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It is made up of two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions and holds its plenary sessions twice a year at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, where its permanent Secretariat is located.
The North–South Centre, officially the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity, is a Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe, the oldest political organisation of European states.
Created by the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Youth Regional Network (YRN) is a platform of regional-level youth organisations, councils and parliaments from across wider Europe. The platform works as a forum where young people can influence regional and European policy while exchanging experiences and good practice. At the general Assembly in Brussels on 10 March 2023, YRN members elected their presidium, which is composed as follow:
Ramona Nicole Mănescu is a Romanian politician and lawyer. From 24 July 2019 to 4 November 2019, she served as minister of Foreign Affairs in the Romanian Government. She was a Member of the European Parliament serving 2007 to 2013 and 2014 to 2019 from the National Liberal Party, active within the European People's Party. As part of this group she is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, vice-chair in the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and a substitute member in the Committee on transport and tourism and in Delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula.
MIJARC Europe is the European continental branch of MIJARC. It is the platform or umbrella organization, representing the catholic, agricultural and rural youth movements in Europe. It has member movements and contact movements in Portugal (JARC), Spain, France (MRJC), Belgium (KLJ), Germany (KLJB), Hungary (KIM), Austria (KJÖ), Poland (EiR), Bulgaria (YMDRAB), Armenia (FYCA), Georgia (Umbrella), Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia (ADEL) and Romania, representing around 150 000 rural young people aged from 12 to 35 years old. At world level, MIJARC represents more than two million young people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
The Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds (CEAOEF) is one of the 17 standing committees in the 41st National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Jürgen Klimke is a German politician and member of the conservative party CDU — Christian Democratic Union of Germany. From 1982 to 2002 he was member of the Parliament of the Free and Federal State of Hamburg. Between 2002 and 2017, he represented Hamburg in the German Federal Parliament.
Dr Hande Özsan Bozatlı, is a dermatologist and former President of the Assembly of European Regions. In 2009 she became Vice-President of Istanbul Special Provincial Council and a President of the EU and International Relations Committee. At the same time, she became a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Hande Özsan Bozatlı has been active as member at the Assembly of European Regions since 2009. This led to her election as President of the AER Committee on Culture, Education, Youth and International Cooperation in 2010. In May 2013, she was elected President of the Assembly of European Regions. She was re-elected in December 2015.
In the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity is the principle that decisions are retained by Member States if the intervention of the European Union is not necessary. The European Union should take action collectively only when Member States' individual power is insufficient. The principle of subsidiarity applied to the European Union can be summarised as "Europe where necessary, national where possible". Subsidiarity is balanced by the primacy of European Union law.
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