In this section you can find information about the public debate on territorial-administrative reforms implemented in different countries and about the participation of the Assembly of European Regions to such debates. Every year the AER meets with regional politicians, decision makers and stakeholders whose regions belong to countries where administrative reforms in the field of regionalisation are taking place or in progress, participating in the debate and offering its knowledge and expertise, organising meetings, conferences and working groups.

AER Regional Democracy seminars, organised on a regular basis by AER, are tools used to provide expertise and advice on regional developments in a specific country or group of countries. They are aimed at both the national and the regional level decision-makers in the country concerned. The AER organises 1-2 day events with academic experts and practitioners from across Europe, who can exchange experience and provide examples of best practice on a specific aspect of regional democracy. Previous seminars have been organised in Serbia, Portugal, Romania, Scandinavia and Ukraine.

The AER launched the 'Subsidiarity is a word' movement to demand recognition of the word subsidiarity and the inclusion of the word in every dictionary of every language worldwide. Although the definition of “subsidiarity” may differ slightly between dictionaries and languages, the word in its political context can be defined generically as “the principle that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the citizen”.
 

The Draft European Charter on Regional Democracy was initiated by the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE) in 1997. The original idea behind the Charter was to set out the key principles that should underlie effective regional democracy in Europe, covering areas such as financial autonomy and legislative powers.

In 2006 the AER drafted a Regionalism Report and respective Country Reports. The Regionalism Report is the first stage in an ambitious project to understand how regionalism works in practice across Europe. It is based on the AER Declaration on Regionalism in Europe published in 1997. The second extended version of the Regionalism Report was issued in 2010, and it's updated on a regular basis according to the reforms implemented in each country in the field of regionalisation and administrative devolution. 

In this section you can find also AER studies on regional performance, aiming at gaining deeper knowledge on the links between the competences and powers of European regions and their overall regional performance in the European context.The studies collect data and retrieve information and to convert it into indicators that reflect the current situation of regions across European countries.