“The current commitment of the regional councils is aimed at the countries of south-east Europe close to entering the EU”: so said Luigi Fedele (Italy), member of the standing Committee of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CERLA), in a speech to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in recent days. Fedele announced that a meeting will be held in Florence in September to “review the work undertaken with the regional assemblies of those countries with which a partnership scheme is in operation”. Objective of the meeting: “to diffuse and reinforce regional and local democracy”. According to Fedele, “wider participation in the decision-making process and territorial involvement turn the European regional legislative assemblies into one of the essential places of democracy”. Hence the willingness of the Assemblies to cooperate with the Council of Europe to reinforce “the diffusion of the methods and practices of regional and local democracies inside and outside the Union”. The CERLA, which brings together the 74 presidents of the European regional legislative assemblies, was founded in Oviedo (Spain) on 7 October 1997, with the aim of ensuring that the regional parliaments play a European role. Currently the presidency is assigned to Italy and CERLA is headed by the president of the parliament of Tuscany. The next assembly will be held in Reggio Calabria on 27-28 October 2003.
