Inaugural meeting of the AER Standing Committee on Institutional Affairs,
8 May 2007, Hedmark Norway

The first meeting of the newly constituted Standing Committee for Institutional Affairs took place on 8th May in Hamar, Hedmark. The meeting was held jointly with the AER Bureau, and all AER members were welcome to attend.

Key topics:

The European Charter for Regional Democracy. The Meeting focused on  recent developments on the European Charter for Regional Democracy, to be presented by the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on the Ministerial Meeting in Valencia in October 2007. Members of the Standing Committee for Institutional Affairs had the occasion to discuss among them and with invited politicians the role of the Charter in Regional Democracy.

In the past, the Charter failed to attract the support of a sufficiently large majority of Member States at the Ministerial Conferences in Helsinki in 2002 and Budapest in 2005, with disagreements emerging over whether the instrument should be legally binding.

In order to restart the debate on the Charter, the Congress has developed a new text, which responds to the objections raised by the Member States and also takes into account developments in the field of regional democracy over the past ten years.

Constitutional Treaty and Berlin Declaration. The Presidium Meeting in Berlin in February adopted the AER position on the Constitutional Treaty and the AER Berlin Declaration. 

The Territorial Agenda. The Territorial Agenda is a key process for the regions. The Presidium in Berlin adopted an action plan which will be presented.

AER Communication Award. Part of the Session was devoted to "Communicating Europe" to the Citizens. It was the occasion to discuss how to best reach the citizens. NB : the AER has recently launched its first Communication Award. For  information and application please click here. 

European Transparency Initiative. Lars-Gerhard Westberg, Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee presented this initiative.

AER Seminar on Regional Democracy in Scandinavia, 9th May, Hedmark
The Scandinavian Welfare Model: Four Countries - Four regional models

On May 9th, the AER and the region of Hedmark organized 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.
This seminar explored the recent developments in regional governance in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, bringing together experts and practitioners from each country to exchange experience with participants and to debate lessons learnt in each country.
Members of the AER Bureau and Standing Committee on Institutional Affairs joined participants from the Scandinavian regions in order to compare the experiences presented with developments in their own countries and to assess whether the Scandinavian models of regional governance have a relevance for the rest of Europe.