Second Thoughts on Europe's "Third Level": The European Union's Committee of the Regions

Abstract

The Maastricht Treaty provided for a consultative Committee of the Regions to bring the European Union's third level into the deliberation of legislation. It began to operate in early 1994. This article assesses its creation and recent activity against the expectations and demands that were expressed at the outset, looking in turn at the representative, advisory, and symbolic functions the new body can perform. What emerges is a largely symbolic body that suffers from entrenched internal divisions and functional overreach in the absence of any real influence on the Union's policymaking process. The danger is a downward spiral of progressive obscurity and the frustration of its members' aspirations.