Progress at Snail’s Pace? Regional Involvement and Treaty Changes since 1990

From the mid-1980s, the sub-state level has become increasingly recognized as a political
actor in European Union (EU) politics. Starting with the Treaty of Maastricht, a series
of EU Treaty changes have recognized the democratic role of regions and local authorities
and have created consultative mechanisms for them. However, the very regions
that pushed for these changes – namely the strong legislative regions like the German
Länder and the Belgian regions – became dissatisfied with the innovations of the Treaty
of Maastricht almost as soon as they were implemented. As a result, their strategy focused
increasingly on limiting transfers of competences to the European level in areas
of importance to regions. The aim of this contribution is therefore to examine the evolution
of the demands of strong legislative regions and their rights on the European level.
It argues that the diversity of European regions has made it difficult to reconcile European
integration with the status and functioning of strong legislative regions.