In full agreement with their Cooperation Protocol, since 2009 the CoR participates in the assessment of territorial impacts of certain proposals made by the European Commission (EC).

 

This collaboration provides Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) with a unique opportunity to influence the EC decision making process already during the pre-legislative phase. This in turn helps the EC to collect quantitative and qualitative data from LRA in order to better assess the territorial impact of EU legislative and policy proposals within the context of the preparation of its impact assessments.

 

 

"Impact assessments should strive to explore a range of legislative and non-legislative options which could potentially meet the set objectives. Full respect should also be given to principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, and the way in which the policy would be monitored and evaluated in order to assess progress in meeting its objectives."

 

Impact assessments are prepared for legislative proposals which have significant economic, social and environmental impacts as well as non-legislative initiatives (white papers, action plans, expenditure programmes, negotiating guidelines).

 

Impact assessments should not only measure the economic, social or legal impact of a certain proposal, but also its territorial consequences. To that end, the CoR is very well placed to help in the assessment of how EC proposals can affect LRA. 

 

 

The competent services of both the EC and the CoR commonly choose sufficiently in advance the proposals eligible for IA. The CoR services put special attention in those policy fields where the interest of LRA can be especially at stake.

Once a dossier has been selected, the CoR Services draft a questionnaire that is sent to all members of its platforms. Questionnaires are designed not only to collect qualitative and quantitative data, but also to already check the respect of the main aspects related to subsidiarity and proportionality. All contributions received will be finally forwarded to the EC together with a report of the consultation. This will be used by the EC in the preparation of its final impact assessment, with special reference to the territorial impacts of the proposal.

 

Moreover, all contributions and the final report of the consultation are published and can feed into the consultative activity of the CoR.

 

The participation in the preparation of an impact assessment gives the CoR and LRA an excellent opportunity to ensure respect to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality already in the pre-legislative phase.