For a Europe of the Regions

Henri Malosse
Former President of the European Union Economic and Social Council

“Someday this small island will surprise Europe”, said Jean-Jacques Rousseau, speaking of Corsica in Le Contrat social.

A verdict without appeal in favour of “the nationalists”
In spite of the high number of non-voters, the more than 56% of votes for the nationalist coalition in the elections in Corsica on December 10, 2017, indicate a support for their ideas and not a rejection of the local political class as it is wrongly believed in Paris.

In that coalition, there is a cohabitation of several trends of Corsica’s national movements, from the most radical to the most moderate, but all of them start from the postulate that there is indeed a Corsican people and nation who have a right to be recognized and exercise certain forms of sovereignty, from full autonomy to independence.

Europe, willy-nilly, is invited to take part in the debate
We must also underline that the nationalist coalition, in power at the Corsican Collectivity Executive since December 2015, has shown to be more active and interested in taking its place in Europe than the traditional political forces of the past. On this point, it is noticeable that permanent links have been woven with neighboring Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, Tuscany, Catalonia, the Basque country, but also with the Republic of Malta when the archipelago was presiding over the European Union. The President of Corsica’s Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, was rewarded for his European engagement with his election, at the beginning of 2017, to the Presidency of the Commission of the islands of the European Union’s very influential Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR).

The contacts and visits with Brussels have also multiplied. These commitments are worth being consolidated with operational and concrete links because today the Corsican economy and society are still turned exclusively towards Paris, though in fact they belong much more to the Mediterranean environment, and Rome is three times nearer.

Paradoxically, on his visit to Corsica on the 6^th and 7^th February, President Emmanuel Macron took the opportunity to underline this belonging to the Mediterranean world, even though he stressed it as an asset for France and he skipped over Europe during his visit, that is rather surprising since we know his commitment to Brussels. In fact, he only mentioned the European aids, thus resuming the tendency of the islanders and many others to consider the Union only for the grants that it can provide, forgetting its political role.

In fact, as in the case of Catalonia, the irruption of the European dimension in internal questions of the nations is not self-evident. The timid and frightened reactions of the European institutions on the Catalan question have shown it. It is necessary to understand that even today the European Union is, first of all, a coalition of States, in spite of Jean Monnet’s famous sentence: “We do not unite States in a coalition, we unite peoples”. In any case, the experience shows that today the better governed territories are those who allow the exercise of democracy at the local and regional level. Ever since the Cities of Plato up to the Swiss Cantons it is not necessary to prove it any more.

The national level, especially in large countries such as France, is too far from the local realities. Although centralism may have its good points in times of crisis or conflicts, very often it appears heavy, inflexible and especially today unable to take into account the diversity of realities and the speed necessary in our society, which on the other hand with the use of the new information technologies allows the citizen to be informed and react in real time. This observation is even truer for a Europe that I wish to be federal, I mean endowed with the powers transferred from the States in domains such as foreign policy, defense, economy; however, it could not function correctly and be efficient but in the framework of a very large decentralization and autonomy of the territories.

Is the Europe of Regions a myth?
Even at the risk to offend or surprise somebody, I challenge those who, women or men, especially in the capitals of Jacobin countries such as France, brush aside the concept of the Europe of Regions. For example, Jean Claude Juncker made a mistake when on his visit to French Guyana, at the top of the Catalan crisis, he declared in a peremptory way, probably to please his French host, “How could we govern a Europe made of 350 entities?” He was forgetting the size of his own country, which is more similar to a small region than to a large country.

The Europe of Regions already exists
It has a constitutional form with the Committee of Regions, a consultative authority composed of 350 representatives of regions and local communities. Of course, it is a consultative body, but, since the Lisbon Treaty, it has been endowed with a right to “control subsidiarity”, that gives it a statute similar to the one of a genuine institution. In fact, the Committee of Regions may act in the name of a region belonging to a EU country which already has a full autonomy: if an autonomous region estimates that the EU, by its laws or acts, oversteps its prerogatives by acting in the region’s competency domains, the Court of Justice may be appealed by the Committee of Regions acting in the name of this or these regions.

When the Parliament of Wallonia very nearly blocked up an EU international treaty
In 2016, when Wallonia opposed for several weeks the signing of the treaty between the European Union and Canada (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement - CETA) and in this way delayed the signing of the agreement (and the coming of the Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to Brussels), it was interesting to read the stunned commentaries of the French media, who were utterly bewildered: “How can 3,5 millions of francophone Belgians paralyze, alone, a treaty concerning more than 535 millions of Europeans! Europe 1 (the radio) was astonished, forgetting that the agreement to sign this treaty needed the unanimity of the 28, and that, for example, Malta and its 420.000 inhabitants could also have blocked the signature! They had forgotten that in Belgium, a Federal State with Regions and autonomous linguistic Communities in full exercise, the Prime Minister must get their agreement before engaging the federal government when the treaties concern the competencies of the Regions and Communities, as it is the case with the environment. The opposition of the Walloon Parliament was lifted only on October 30^th , 2016, when the European Commission negotiated with Canada some declarations that somewhat cleared the questions of the environment and the labor rights, thus partly satisfying the demands of the Walloon deputies. In fact, we can thank the Walloon Parliament for underlining a certain number of dangers connected with this agreement, that national governments had not identified. The ratification of the CETA Treaty by all the national parliaments (today 27) will be perilous, in spite of the improvements obtained by the Walloons.

In fact, the autonomous Regions can already be fully-qualified actors. This fact is little known, for it depends on national legislations, that are variable according to the degree of autonomy of the entities. If Belgium today is probably the country which is the most strict on the respect of regional and community competences, there are other examples too. The German federal government always associates the Länder to the debates of the Council of European Ministers on the matters of their competence, such as transportation, education, the environment. They, organized in “Conferences of Länder”, represent Germany in turn, for example on matters of education. All German Länder have at their disposal delegations to Brussels at the European Union, which function as “mini-embassies”.

One can also mention the autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira in Portugal, which are allowed to directly implement European laws in their own legislations, without going through the Parliament of their national State when they concern matters of their own competence.

Tomorrow a Europe that will allow the emancipation of the most autonomous territories?
Today it is the question posed by the case of Catalonia, and that could be a way to solve it, as well as, further on, it might be a rough draft for the discussions which are going to start between Paris and Corsica.

In fact, in a reformed European Union with a federal or confederal character one could well conceive that in the framework of a more substantial subsidiarity there may be space for autonomous territories endowed with broadened competences, as is the case today for the Regions and Communities of Belgium, the Portuguese territories of the Azores and Madeira, the German Länder, some Italian Regions… Although “trivialized”, the strengthening of the autonomy of Corsica or Catalonia would no longer appear as a “casus belli” with the Nation-States, but a salutary and beneficial evolution toward a governance closer to the citizens. Of course, different national approaches may freely express themselves according to the history, geography and also identity of the peoples. Without hurry or forced marches, this evolution could in fact concern almost all the countries of the Union. For example, in this way even the small island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago could get more autonomy according to the wishes of some of its representatives.

So, one could imagine that some particular fields such as the environment, education, transports, a part of the tax system, healthcare, regional development may be recognized as territorial competences in the Union.

With a reappraisal of their regal powers (justice, police, social solidarity), could not the Nation-States, rather than becoming weaker, regain efficiency and legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens?

This way a part of the activities of the Union in the fields of energy, transports, the organization of healthcare, the support to enterprises and innovation would be insured by the cooperation of entities which could be the States, the Regions and the actors of civil society.

The institutional architecture of such a Europe could leave room for choice to fully autonomous Regions. With a European Parliament with wider powers, a European Executive elected by that Parliament and unified (fusion of the posts of President of the Commission and that of the Council, as suggested by Jean Claude Juncker) would exist as an authority of co-decision, a Senate replacing the Council of Ministers, that would be either only a representation of the States, or enlarged to the representatives of the territories on the fields of their competences. One could imagine, in this case, that the Committee of the Regions would delegate in it representatives with a right to vote.

Then let us make a positive reading of the events in Catalonia and Corsica. We should not consider them as dangers for a breakup, but as a stage in the building of a Europe that will be nearer to its citizens, respectful of the various identities which compose it, and at the same time stronger for concentrating on the problems of the planet.

Translated by Joseph Montchamp