Balancing Democracy and Information: The European Committee of the Regions' Contribution to EU Multi-Level Governance

Abstract

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) was created by the Maastricht Treaty as a new representative assembly of the EU’s regional and local authorities. In 2024, it celebrated the 30th anniversary of its first plenary session. Since its foundation, the CoR has faced the double challenge of, on the one hand, playing its role as a consultative body in the EU legislative process and, on the other hand, of developing innovative initiatives to make its contribution to EU multi-level governance and policy-making, thereby strengthening its own position. Throughout the years, the CoR has developed networks, initiatives and tools to integrate the perspectives and interests of regional and local authorities into EU politics. In this volume, Justus Schönlau examines how these endeavours are reflected in the CoR’s activities for the local implementation of the “European Green Deal” and “Better Regulation”. He also elaborates on how the CoR manages the competing and sometimes conflicting demands – from its members, as well as from its institutional partners and other stakeholders in EU policy-making – for political legitimacy and a two-way information link between the EU and its diverse local and regional levels.