A declaration to strengthen regionalisation in Europe adopted in Innsbruck (Austria)

Innsbruck, 1 June 2012. - The “International Conference on the Role of Regions with Legislative Power in Council of Europe and European Union member states”, adopted on 1^st June 2012 a declaration aimed at advancing decentralisation in Europe by strengthening Europe’s regions.

The declaration reiterates the key principles of regional democracy and focuses on the current challenges and strategic goals for European regions with legislative powers including multi-level governance, the principle of subsidiarity, decentralised human rights policies as well as transfrontier regional co-operation and regional level of government –and all this against the background of the current financial and economic crisis.

In particular, the Conference calls for the reinforcement of the principle of subsidiarity, an increased implication for regions in the European decision-making process, as well as a binding force for the Reference Framework on Regional Democracy used by the Council of Europe.

The participants in the conference also insisted on the specificity of regional parliaments and called for the establishment of institutions in all regions for the control and the advice of the administration. In addition, the Declaration highlights the importance of transfrontier co-operation on the basis of different legal provisions (eg the Madrid outline convention and its additional protocols, in particular Protocol No 3 concerning the formation of Euroregional Co-operation Groupings, ECGs).  

Finally, the Innsbruck Declaration reminds us that the regions with legislative powers have a pioneering role to play in the European process of regionalisation and therefore promotes intensified co-operation between institutions representing regions in Europe.