The Role Of Regions And Sub-National Actors In Europe

174 Pages·2005·0.64 MB·English

by  Stephen Weatherill

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THE ROLE OF REGIONS AND SUB NATIONAL ACTORS IN EUROPE
The essays gathered in this collection examine the involvement of self-governing
sub-national and regional actors in the law and policy-making of the European
Union. State power is today exercised in the context of the complex institutional
environment of the EU. But what of regions and sub-national actors? Are their
interests adequately represented; can they advance them or can they, at least,
protect them from unwitting or calculated damage? This book surveys the
broad questions of law and political science and investigates the contribution of
the EU’s Committee of the Regions and also ‘bottom-up’ initiatives launched by
the regions themselves. Given that much regional autonomy has been hard
won, one would suppose that the centralising influence flowing from the EU’s
intrusion into the domestic settlement would be treated with extreme caution by
the regions. Moreover, among the Member States there is great diversity in the
patterns of political organisation adopted to cope with the tension between the
centralisation of power and respect for local autonomy. Case studies including
Spain, Germany and Finland reveal that there is no single consistent historical
narrative. States change, as the UK’s recent experience illustrates. The book
offers findings that are interesting at a general level in investigating patterns of
multi-level governance, but is also rich in case-specific information.
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The Role of Regions
and Sub-National
Actors in Europe
Edited by
Stephen Weatherill
and
Ulf Bernitz
OXFORD AND PORTLAND, OREGON
2005
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Hart Publishing
Oxford and Portland, Oregon
Published in North America (US and Canada) by
Hart Publishing c/o
International Specialized Book Services
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Portland, Oregon
97213-3644
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© The Editors and Contributors severally, 2005
The editors and contributors have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work
Hart Publishing is a specialist legal publisher based in Oxford, England.
To order further copies of this book or to request a list of other
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN 1–84113–488–0 (hardback)
Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Foreword ix
1 The Challenge of the Regional Dimension in the European Union 1
Stephen Weatherill
2 Regions and the European Union: Letting them In, and Leaving
them Alone 33
Charlie Jeffery
3 The Participation of Infra-State Entities in European Union Affairs
in Spain: the Basque Case 47
Joxerramon Bengoetxea
4 The Scottish Parliament and the European Union: Analysing Regional
Parliamentary Engagement 67
Caitríona Carter and Aileen McLeod
5 The Case of the Åland Islands—Regional Autonomy versus the
European Union of States 89
Niilo Jääskinen
6 The German Länder: Involvement in EC/EU Law and Policy Making 103
Peter-Christian Müller-Graff
7 The Committee of the Regions Today and in the Future—A Critical
Overview 119
Joakim Nergelius
8 Finding a Role for the Regions in Checking the EU’s Competence 131
Stephen Weatherill
9 The Regional Question, Subsidiarity and the Future of Europe 157
John Loughlin
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List of Contributors
Joxerramon Bengoetxea (PhD, Edinburgh) formerly of the Court of Justice of
the EC, Luxembourg/University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian.
Ulf Bernitz is Professor of Law in the University of Stockholm. He participates
in the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Oxford-Stockholm Association
in European Law, housed in the Institute of European and Comparative Law in
Oxford, which hosted the conference which inspired this book.
Caitríona Carter is a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and a member of
the Europa Institute. She is author of work published in the areas of UK devo-
lution and European Policymaking, and EU governance and social policy.
Niilo Jääskinen is a Justice of the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland.
Mr Jääskinen was responsible for the status of Åland Islands in the Finnish
accession negotiations.
Charlie Jefferyis Professor of Politics at the University of Edinburgh and Director
of the Economic and Social Research Council’s research programme on
Devolution and Constitutional Change.
John Loughlin is Professor of Politics at Cardiff University and Visiting
Professor at the University of Umea, Sweden. In 2004, he is Visiting Research
Fellow, Merton College, Oxford and in 2005, Fellow of the Royal Flemish
Academy of Arts and Sciences, based in Brussels. He is Joint Convenor of the
ECPR Standing Group on Regionalism.
Aileen McLeod is currently Senior Research Specialist on Europe in the Scottish
Parliament and author of work published in the area of Scotland and Europe
and the legitimacy of the European Parliament.
Professor Dr Dr h.c. Peter-Christian Müller-Graff, Universität Heidelberg.
Joakim Nergelius is Professor of Law at Örebro University in Sweden. He
worked in the Committee of the Regions in 2002–03.
Stephen Weatherill is Jacques Delors Professor of EC Law in the University of
Oxford. He participates in the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Oxford-
Stockholm Association in European Law, housed in the Institute of European
and Comparative Law in Oxford, which hosted the conference which inspired
this book.
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Foreword
This collection of essays owes its origins to a conference held in Lincoln College,
Oxford in April 2003 under the auspices of the Institute of European and
Comparative Law. In 2001 Stephen Weatherill and Ulf Bernitz secured funding
from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in Sweden to support academic
projects involving the Universities of Stockholm and Oxford. This was one of
them.
The essays gathered in this collection examine the involvement of self-
governing sub-national and regional actors in the law and policy-making of the
European Union. State power is today exercised in the context of the complex
institutional environment of the EU. But what of regions and sub-national
actors? Are their interests adequately represented—can they advance them or
can they, at least, protect them from unwitting or calculated damage? This book
surveys the broad questions of law and political science. It explores the ways in
which the regions operate within their domestic State structures in order to ease
the pressures flowing from the addition of a European layer of governance. It
also shows how the regions seek to project their anxieties directly on to the
European sphere, not only through formal involvement in the EU’s institutional
make-up—most prominently in the EU’s Committee of the Regions—but also
through collaborative initiatives launched by the regions themselves, such as the
‘REGLEG’ grouping of regions with legislative powers. Part of the interest is
naturally the positioning of self-governing sub-national and regional levels of
governance in the debate conducted within and outwith the Convention on the
Future of Europe which concluded its business in the summer of 2003, and in the
subsequent Intergovernmental Conference which reached consensus on a new
Treaty text in June 2004 (and which, as far as the regional dimension is con-
cerned, largely followed the Convention’s proposed model). However, although
the possible patterns of reform are clearly part of the regional debate, our con-
ference was not designed as merely a ‘Convention-watching’ exercise, and this
book follows the more ambitious model of seeking to reflect on how to ‘layer’
constitutional authority in an enlarged and—perhaps!—rejuvenated European
Union. This inquiry reveals a remarkable diversity of regional aspirations and a
correspondingly wide range of techniques exploited by the regions to achieve
their objectives. It also clearly identifies the need to address the tension between
local autonomy and the virtues of centralisation as essential to the future stabil-
isation of the European Union.
At the April 2003 conference held in Oxford papers were delivered by John
Usher (University of Edinburgh), Charlie Jeffery (University of Birmingham),
Joxerramon Bengoetxea (University of the Basque Country and European
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x Foreword
Court of Justice), Peter Müller-Graff (University of Heidelberg), Niilo
Jääskinen (Finnish Supreme Administrative Court) and Joakim Nergelius
(Committee of the Regions). To all of them we are very grateful for their active
participation in a very enjoyable event. Most have been able to contribute a
paper to this collection. To that list we are pleased to have been able to add
other contributors with relevant expertise: John Loughlin (University of Wales),
Stephen Weatherill (University of Oxford), and Catriona Carter and Aileen
McLeod (University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament respectively).
The collection is completed by an Introductory Chapter written by Stephen
Weatherill, which draws together the themes that emerge from the papers in the
collection and situates the debate in the wider scholarly and political context.