AER Seminars on Regional Democracy

This seminar presented the state of play regarding the situation of regional democracy in European States and the positive, but also challenging aspects of decentralisation. It offered the possibility to a delegation of Tunisian members of government to learn more about decentralisation in different European countries. 

AER also actively participates in the current discussion about regional structures in Tunisia. Therefore, AER has been a partner at a dencentralisation conference in Tunis by providing the expertise of Mr. Pascal Goergen, representative of Brussels-Capital. Further information HERE.

After the « no » at the referendum on regionalisation in 1998, Portugal is discussing again a reform of its territorial structure. Whilst the debate shows a clear consensus on the need to move towards more decentralisation, the question now is: Which kind of decentralised structure does Portugal need? What can we learn from the experience of other countries in Europe which went through the same process? Are decentralised systems necessarily more expensive and more complex? What can we learn from the experience of the Azores or Madeira, having a special autonomy status? These questions were addressed during this conference on regionalisation which was organised by Think Tank ConstruirIdeias and the Assembly of European Regions (AER).

The AER together with Donetsk Regional Council organised a conference on effective regional governance in the Ukraine. The aim of the conference was to discuss current developments of regional democracy in Ukraine and to learn from the regional governance experience in other European countries.  

Experts from AER members regions included: Rolf Vorburger, Coordination of External Affairs, State Chancellery, Canton St. Gallen (CH), Peter Bussjäger, Director of the Institute of Federalism and Head of the Office of the Land Parliament of Vorarlberg (AT), Jürgen Meinck, Ministerial Council, Hesse State Chancellery (DE), Xavier Arbos Marin, Dean of Faculty of Law, Girona University, Cataluña (ES).   Among the speakers from the Ukrainian side will be V. Kuybida, Minister of Regional Development and Construction of the Ukraine and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.   Invited guests were heads and representatives of all Ukrainian regions.    

The Scandinavian Welfare Model: Four Countries - Four regional models

On May 9th, the AER and the region of Hedmark jointly organised a seminar on regional developments in Scandinavia.

In the past few years, there have been a number of significant developments in regionalisation processes in Scandinavia, with new regional structures being developed throughout the north of Europe. Throughout these developments, themes such as the distribution of responsibilities and the financing of regional government have constantly come to the fore. Subsidiarity has increasingly emerged as an important theme underpinning governance throughout the region, and indeed in the whole European continent.
The seminar will explored the recent developments in regional governance in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and brought together experts and practitioners from each country to exchange experience with participants and to debate lessons learnt in each country.

Vojvodina Seminar

Seminar oganised by the AER and Vojvodina and focused on how create the conditions for Effective Regional Democracy. International organisations, representative of Universities and regions took part in this seminar.