A Europe of regions and cities : strategies and prospects for EU enlargement : (part II on Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey)

Abstract

Since the opening of accession negotiations in February 2000 with six new candidate countries (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia), as decided by the Helsinki European Council, the Committee of the Regions entered in a pre-accession dialogue with the regions and cities of these countries as well as making initial contacts with those of Turkey. The CoR has had a key contribution to make to the success of the forthcoming EU enlargement due to its closeness to citizens and to its natural links with the local and regional elected representatives of the applicant countries. Indeed, the CoR first made contact with elected representatives of the candidate countries in 1997. These relations have been formalized through the establishment of a number of joint committees for the Association Council with representatives of local and regional authorities of candidate countries, and the CoR now plans to welcome these colleagues as observers. The local and regional authorities of the applicant countries have a major role to play in developing modem democracy in their countries and implementing pre-enlargement institutional reforms. In addition, the success of accession to the European Union relies on a better preparation and information of the citizens of these countries, and here again local and regional authorities have high responsibilities. And we know their role will grow further, especially with the process of devolution currently underway in these countries. This study complements the first CoR study "A Europe of Regions and Cities - Strategies and Prospects for EU Enlargement" on the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus published in 2000. It highlights significant differences with the countries dealt with in the first study in particular a strong history of centralism. However, there are positive driving forces to decentralisation and regionalisation to be seen, such as a convergence of regional identities and regional administrative structures.