Representing regions in Europe: The committee of the regions

Sub‐National Mobilization and European Integration: Does it Make any Difference?

“…• Their time has not yet come (the Committee of the Regions). The CoR, notwithstanding the breakthrough which formal representation of SNAs at the European level represents (Loughlin, 1997), necessarily remains a marginal force as long as its powers and status are weak and its internal cohesion and common purpose limited (Reilly, 1997). • Their time has gone (the pro-regional lobby).…”

The other dimension of third‐level politics in Europe: The congress of local and regional powers of the council of Europe

“…In a weak sense, it refers to the multiple and varied forms and channels of expression of substatal demands, not exclusively regional, to the Community authorities. Taking a similar line, Loughlin (1996; states that the concept Europe of the Regions can also be understood in the sense of a federal Europe, where the regions replace the states, and as a Europe in which the regions of a varied nature, through various openings, play different roles with a different grade of participation in the decision-making process (Loughlin, 1996). Although the Europe of the Regions has been leading the way in recent years (Jeffery, 1996), a complementary expression of this, understood in a wider sense, and generally underrated, is the Congress of Local and Regional Powers of the Council of Europe.…”

Sub‐national institutions and the new European governance: UK local authority lobbying strategies for the IGC

“…In 1991, the German Länder led the campaign to establish the CoR, but by 1996 the CoR regions' lobby was headed by the French and Spanish delegations. The dynamism which had led to the creation of the CoR had ebbed because the lander had become disillusioned with the committee's ineffectiveness and its internal divisions, principally between local and regional authorities and between authorities from the North and South of the EU (Loughlin, 1996). These internal problems generated more space for the local government groupings within the CoR and consisted of the UK, Dutch and the Irish representatives.…”