The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is the largest independent network of regions in wider
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. Bringing together regions
from 35 countries and 15 interregional organisations, AER is a forum for interregional cooperation.
Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant (french: Brabant wallon ; nl, Waals-Brabant ; wa, Roman Payis) is a province located in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the province of Flemish Brabant (Flemish Region) and ...
), 47 Regions and 9 interregional organisations founded the Council of the Regions of Europe (CRE), which would later become the Assembly of European Regions in November 1987 at the second General meeting of the Regions of Europe in Brussels.
The year 1985 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Youth Year. The same year AER launched its first programme, ''Eurodyssey'', designed to promote and encourage youth mobility.
In 1990, AER's ''Tabula Regionum Europae'' published the first map of its kind citing a Europe made up of regions and not simply of countries. The year after, the principle of subsidiarity became the leading AER campaign to promote the role of regions in all European and national decision-making processes. Soon thereafter its success was to be evident as the principle was recognized in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992.
The creation of the
Committee of the Regions
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...
(CoR) in 1994 and the Chamber of the Regions in the framework of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) in 1994, exemplified a victory for AER in advocating for the regions in Europe.
In 1995, AER launched a campaign to promote regionalism in Europe. As a result, 300 AER members adopted in 1996 the ''Declaration on Regionalism in Europe'' immediately initializing a reference document for new and developing regions.
In 2002, AER presented its position on the “Future of Europe” to the European Convention. AER actively contributed to the drafting of the European Constitution, demonstrating strong political involvement. The final text included all AER proposals, namely
* The recognition of the regions as an important level of governance within Europe.
* The extension of the principle of subsidiarity to regional and local levels.
* The inclusion of regional cohesion in EU's objectives.
In 2008, AER established the ''Youth Regional Network'', Europe's first and only platform of regional youth councils, parliaments and organisations.
Definition of "Region"
According to the AER statutes, in principle the term "region" refers to a territorial authority existing at the level immediately below that of the central government, with its own political representation in the form of an elected regional assembly.
Members
Member regions of the Assembly of European Regions come from the following countries:
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Jordi Pujol
Jordi Pujol Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003.
Early life
Pujol was ...
Edgar Faure
Edgar Jean Faure (; 18 August 1908 – 30 March 1988) was a French politician, lawyer, essayist, historian and memoirist who served as Prime Minister of France in 1952 and again between 1955 and 1956.European integration
* Regions of Europe