Expanding De Facto the Institutional Mandate? The Role of the Committee of the Regions in EU Enlargement Policy

Though the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has been established as an advisory institution of the European Union (EU), since the Lisbon Treaty (2007) it has gradually shown significant ‘actorness’ in policy areas where it has no institutional mandate whatsoever. The EU’s external relations stand for a notable example: based on traits like the functional capacity of its member (regions and municipalities) the CoR actively aspires to gain more authority and expand its institutional power on the field. The argumentation is based on the rationale that regional and local authorities can implement and achieve better policy results ‘on the ground’, be that within or outside the EU borders. The proposed paper focuses on the role of the CoR in EU enlargement policy, exploring its added value on the field. From an institutional perspective, we examine the extent the CoR participates in the policy process and the way(s) it deals with other EU principal actors (European Commission, European External Action Service). From a functional point of view, we investigate the CoR’s (human and financial) resources in conjunction with the nature of the bodies it can establish (Joint Consultative Committees and Working Groups) with a view to collaborating with subnational authorities from candidate and potential candidate countries to join the EU. We also look into the financial tool employed by the EU to fund projects in those countries at the local level (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance II & III). Building on the concept of EU para-diplomacy, the proposed paper seeks to identify the mechanisms, the scope and the added value of the CoR’s actorness in EU enlargement policy. Methodologically, the paper utilizes official reports, policy papers, data and a small number of targeted semi-structured interviews. We argue that the CoR has successfully managed to promote its role in EU enlargement policy, and more broadly in EU external relations, despite its limited administrative resources and institutional role.