The purpose of the Thematic Subsidiarity Workshops is to orient the subsidiarity debate towards practical issues in policy-making within specific sectors, i.e. those policy domains where decisions are mostly made at the local, regional or central level and where the European Union does not have exclusive competence. 
 
This year's focus has been on territorial impact assessments as a tool for territorial cohesion and better law-making. The workshop was chaired by CoR Member and Subsidiarity Coordinator Michael Schneider (DE/EPP) and counted with the participation of Lord Graham Tope (UK/ALDE) CoR rapporteur on "Regulatory Fitness"; Lewis Dijkstra from European Commission's DG REGIO and directly involved in the drafting of the recently adopted "Territorial Impact Assessment Guidelines"; Elke Ballon and Alexia Maniaki from the European Parliament's Directorate for Impact Assessments; and Peter Mehlbye, Director of the Coordination Unit of the ESPON Programme.

The impact that EU proposals can have on EU territories needs to be assessed already in the pre-legislative phase in order to ensure their correct implementation and to avoid undesired effects. Therefore, it is an element of great importance also to ensure the respect of the subsidiarity principle and to justify the action of the EU. In July 2013, the Committee of the Regions has adopted an own initiative opinion on the assessment of territorial impacts, for which Michael Schneider (DE/EPP), Coordinator of the Subsidiarity Network, has been CoR rapporteur. The opinion points out the importance of carrying out territorial impact assessments for EU initiatives and sets the basis for future CoR action in this field. In particular, the association with DG REGIO or the use of the tools provided by the ESPON Programme are corner stones for this. The European Parliament and its recently created Directorate for Impact Assessments is also called to play an important role in this respect.