THE ROLE OF THE REGIONS IN A UNITED EUROPE
This lecture was delivered by the Commissioner to the Queeen
of the Province of Zeeland on 1 December 2004 during a din
ner at the Abdij in Middelburg for the participants of the 8th
Asia-Europe Young Leaders Symposium (AEYLS). AEYLS 8 was
held in Scheveningen from 29 November to 3 December 2004.
The event was organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF,
Singapore), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
International Institute for Asian Studies (HAS, the Netherlands).
Hosting the event was particularly timely as the Netherlands
then held the EU Presidency and co-hosted the Fifth ASEM
(Asia-Europe Meeting) Summit. The main theme of the sym
posium was: 'Shifting Paradigms in Asia-Europe relations:
Translating Common Challenges into Common Opportunities'.
Door Wim van Gelder
While preparing myself for this occasion I studied
the objectives of the International Institute for Asian
Studies and the Asia Europe Foundation in general
and the subjects of the current symposium in
particular. It occurred to me, that in order to avoid
confusion, I would have to start by clearly defining
the concept 'region'. For in the context of this
symposium the concept 'region' is almost exclusively
used to define large parts of the world - in some cases
whole continents - as more or less coherent areas,
at least from a global point of view. However, in the
context of my speech the concept 'region' will be
used in a quite different sense: to indicate coherent
areas with a scale that is not correspondent with the
various countries that constitute the European Union.
Often these regions are smaller than countries
and sometimes their boundaries do not concur on
national borders.
The human scale
A commentator on the history of the unification of
Europe once stated, that the final and most important
condition for successful unification of Europe has
been (and still is) the constituents' consent. True
as this may be, I cannot but conclude that for quite
some time European events have taken place without
much direct influence of the constituents.
This democratic deficit still exists to some
degree. I will elaborate on that later. But there are
some supplementary remarks to be made, more in
particular on the role and influence of the regions
as far as the democratic legitimating of the European
Union is concerned. I think the best angle of
approach of my subject is the paradox of a human
scale for democracy and the actual dimensions of the
European Union.
When dealing with issues like the so-called
democratic deficit or the role of local and regional
authorities in the European Union it is essential to
keep in mind the constitutional set-up of that Union.
After all, it is this set-up that supplies us with a frame
of reference to assess the possibilities of democracy
12 Zeeuws Tijdschrift 2006/7-8