1. The EU's Assembly of Regional and Local Representatives
Statistics and the Committee of the Regions: assessing, monitoring, benchmarking.
Luxembourg, 30.9/
Daniele Berno, Directorate Horizontal Policies and Networks,
Committee of the Regions
The EU's Assembly of Regional and Local Representatives

2. The CoR and its prerogatives
established in 1992, first plenary session in 1994
empowered in 1997 and 2001
reinforced by the Lisbon treaty
link between EU Institutions and EU citizens
closing the gaps on European integration
the regional and local elected authorities (353 Members) represent the electorate’s concerns
70% of EU legislation has a direct regional or local impact
1992 Maastricht (establishment); 1997 Amsterdam (extension of CoR remits to 2/3 of EU policies; possibility to be consulted by the EP); 2001 Nice (underlines the democratic legitimacy by requiring that its members have a political mandate at a regional/local level); 2007 Lisbon (right to appeal to the Court of Justice).
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

3. Regional Statistics and Rural Development
Areas of competence
The CoR has to be consulted throughout the legislative process involving the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in the following areas:
economic and social cohesion
employment
vocational training
education and culture
social policy
health
civil protection
environment
climate change
energy
trans-European networks
transport
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

4. Regional Statistics and Rural Development
The Principles
Subsidiarity
- decisions in the EU must be taken as close as possible to the citizen,
- the EU level must not take any action which could be carried out more efficiently by the national, regional or local authorities,
- the CoR has the right to bring an action before the Court of Justice of the European Union if this principle is breached (Lisbon Treaty).
Proximity
- all levels of governance must be "close to the citizen",
- transparency in the work of national, regional and local authorities is essential to ensure citizens’ participation in the democratic process.
Partnership
- the four levels of governance - EU, national, regional and local - cooperate closely to ensure good European governance,
- these four levels of governance are indispensable and must be involved throughout the decision‑making process.
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

5. Regional Statistics and Rural Development
The Activities
6 plenary sessions a year
more than 50 opinions a year on EU legislation:
- opinions on legislative proposals on policy areas for which consultation is mandatory
- prospective opinions on future European policies
- prospective opinions on territorial impact assessment analysis on some
European Commission proposals
more than 40 stakeholders’ consultations each year
more than 300 events a year
- conferences, workshops, Open Days
resolutions on topical political issues
studies, publications & reports
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

6. Territorial Impact Assessment (1)
WHAT → to identify whether a policy option risks having a large asymmetric territorial impact (spatial approach: administrative/political levels; types of regions or areas; functional areas)
WHY → to increase the effectiveness and the efficiency of the policy (reducing the costs for the most affected regions and/or mitigation measures)
WHEN → in the case of 1) policies that explicitly targets specific regions or areas, or of 2) not evenly distributed issues
HOW → qualitative approach, statistical description and projections, simulation of the impacts with models
→ tools: ESPON ARTS, QUICKScan,
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

7. Territorial Impact Assessment (2)
Different for each policy proposal
Independant of policy proposal
POLICIES
REGIONS
EXPOSURE
TERRITORIAL
SENSITIVITY
TERRITORIAL IMPACT
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

8. CoR opinion on assessing territorial impacts
no policy area should be excluded a priori from a possible territorial impact assessment;
close link between territorial impact assessment, assessing impacts in general, and subsidiarity and proportionality auditing of new legislation at European level;
early assessment of territorial impacts is meant to ensure that the local and regional level is involved, that spatial development is practicable, relevant and territorially linked, and that funds are deployed effectively;
territorial impact assessment as an important part of Europe 2020 strategy;
assessing territorial impact is a relevant part of territorial cohesion.
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

9. TIA as a part of territorial cohesion
territorial cohesion is as a three-dimensional concept:
Balanced territorial development: seeks to even out economic and social disparities between regions through structural support and the development of endogenous regional development potential;
Territorial integration: commits European policy-makers to adopting an approach that is horizontally and vertically coherent as well as cross-sectorial when exercising their powers that have territorial implications;
Territorial governance: requires that public, private and civil society stakeholders network locally to ensure that measures are effective;
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

10. Europe 2020 and the CoR Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform:
AIMS: 1) to support the diffusion of multilevel policymaking for growth and
jobs by facilitating the exchange of information and good practices
between local and regional policy makers;
2) to contribute to address challenges and obstacles, mainly by means
of monitoring exercises at the territorial levels feeding into the CoR
consultative activity.
TOOLS: 1) website:
2) policy workshops
3) questionnaires and surveys
4) monitoring reports
5) thematic initiatives
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

11. Assessing Europe 2020 at the regional level
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

12. Europe 2020: trends at regional level
2007 – present
Indicator
(with EU Target)
Regions improving
as % of regions with data available
Regions stagnating
Regions declining
Regions without data
75 % Employment rate among year olds 17 7%
171
67% 67
26%
Tertiary educational attainment
235
94% 16 6% 0% 21
At most 10% early school leavers
161 39
16% 33
3% of GDP R&D spending 68
69% 11
11% 20
20%
173
20 million fewer people at risk of poverty and social exclusion** 35
30% 25
21% 58
49%
154
* Trends are assessed by evaluating difference between start and end year, they are be positive or negative if the average annual change is greater than 1 % in absolute terms. If it is between 0 % and 1 % in absolute terms, it is supposed that no significant change has occurred (=stagnation).
** Last trend in the table calculated on the basis , due to limited data availability
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

13. Europe 2020: data availability at NUTS 2 level
Indicator
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
GHG emissions 0%
Share of renewable energy 7% 8% 9%
Early school leavers
71%
79%
85%
74%
90%
89%
92%
94%
93%
Tertiary educational attainment
86%
88%
96%
Employment rate
91%
100%
R&D spending
38%
40%
48%
69%
52%
78%
57%
87%
37% 2%
Poverty and social exclusion 1%
15%
41%
51%
56%
63%
54% 4%
Energy efficiency
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

14. Measuring territorial cohesion (1)
source: elaboration on DG Regio and Eurostat data
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

15. Measuring territorial cohesion (2)
source: elaboration on DG Regio and Eurostat data
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

16. Statistics at the CoR: needs and challenges
consistency
relatively large lag time
need of availability at all sub-national levels
geographical and temporal coverage
data availability on all EU 2020 headings
explaining cause and effect
checking the correlation of multiple variables
30/9-1/ Working Party on
Regional Statistics and Rural Development

17. Thank you for your attention.
comments at:
visits at:
The EU's Assembly of Regional and Local Representatives