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Conclusions of the Trio of Presidencies (Spain, Belgium and Hungary):

1. Multilevel governance is an essential tool for the EU of the 21st Century for
helping to get individuals more involved in building the European Union and
promoting participatory democracy, creating forums in which various
stakeholders can meet and work together - such as the Committee of the
Regions - and putting co-ordinated response mechanisms into place between
the various levels of government in Europe. It thereby improves the service
provided to citizens and advances overall co-operation.

Applying the principles and goals of multilevel governance, as well as those of

cohesion, is of utmost importance for implementing the 2020 Strategy. These
objectives should form part of the strategy; active participation by regional and
local governments will play an important role in achieving the strategy's goals.

2. Territorial cohesion is a key element in defining which form the

relationships between the European regions should take and how they should
position themselves within their immediate environment and among the
European regions as a whole on issues such as competitiveness, connectivity
and sustainability. In order to achieve effective cohesion policy "on the
ground", regional and local authorities will need be more involved in
managing such policies, according to their respective powers. This will directly
contribute to achieving the objectives of the 2020 Strategy. So the concept of
regional and local cohesion represents an important qualitative step forward, in
that it places emphasis on European regional policy in areas such as self-
government and good governance, while encouraging co-operation between
various levels of government. This is why we must ensure that both regional
and local authorities are sufficiently involved in the process of defining and
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implementing the policies of the EU as an instrument of economic, social and

territorial cohesion. In order to do this, the relationship must be strengthened
between multilevel governance and cohesion, with particular emphasis on
solidarity as a goal of Cohesion Policy and of all of the EU's actions at a
regional level. In this way, the full involvement and commitment of citizens in
all procedures involving such actions at regional level will be achieved.

This calls for a robust European cohesion policy to help ensure that the
priorities of the EU's 2020 Strategy are translated into real ground-level
development throughout the entire EU, with collaboration by regional and
local stakeholders.

We must strengthen the means of bringing about greater local and regional
involvement in EU decision-making processes, including participation by local
and regional governments in decision-making processes that are in line with
the constitutional framework of each member state, and the boosting of co-
operation between the Committee of the Regions and other EU institutions.

3. Since multilevel governance has a dual dimension - both horizontal and

vertical - it is particularly important to ensure suitable mechanisms are in place
to empower regional and local authorities. These mechanisms should take into
consideration the authorities' ability to understand and make contributions to
any EU policies that may directly affect how they exercise their regulatory and
executive powers, both in the initial phase by allowing them to influence how
the national position is set, as well as in the final stage by ensuring the greatest
possible collaboration of agents involved in applying EU laws and regulations.
Aside from institutional means for the regional and local governments to
participate in implementing these mechanisms, informal participation
structures based on new technologies should also be put into place across the
board, as a way of encouraging new players (representatives of the social
economy, NGOs, etc.) to take part in drawing up and implementing EU
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policies. In the same vein, we welcome the initiative on the part of local
governments to set up the Barcelona Agenda.

4. Under the principle of institutional loyalty, it would be preferable for the

various levels of government to take part in decision-making voluntarily as
they
assume shared responsibility for the new measures. This means that setting up
mechanisms to guarantee multilevel governance should go hand-in-hand with
ongoing development of impact evaluation mechanisms (including the use of
existing regional impact evaluation mechanisms in place before approval of the
overarching evaluation initiatives or instruments subsequently introduced at
regional and local level).

5. Fuller involvement by regional and local bodies in drafting and applying EU

policies should be done in such a way as to ensure that the new instruments for
participation by regional and local authorities, or for strengthening existing
ones, do not increase the time required for decisions to be taken.

6. Strengthening of instruments already in place that facilitate multilevel

governance, such as the EGTCs (European Grouping for Territorial Cohesion).
This would involve simplifying the administrative procedures for allowing a
country's various governments to participate in these groupings; promoting the
exchange of information between EGTCs that have already been created and
those that are in the process of being established; and analysing how these
groupings contribute to territorial cohesion and the effective implementation of
multilevel governance.

7. Encouraging measurement of the impact at regional and local level of

legislation adopted, both by the European Union and the member states,
focusing on the following areas:
a) The breakdown of powers relating to the particular issue in question.
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b) The degree to which the principle of subsidiarity has been applied.

c) The level of involvement by regional and local authorities in drafting the
legislation.

The Presidency calls on the ministers responsible for regional and local policy
in the EU-27 and the European institutions to ensure that mechanisms are in
place to ensure the smooth functioning of relationships between the various
levels of government. This will increase participation by regional and local
authorities in drafting, implementing and evaluating EU policies, and will
ensure that the open discussion at the highest political level that was started at
this Informal Meeting on Multilevel Governance in Malaga continues under the
future presidencies. The Presidency also thanks Belgium and Hungary for
having agreed to hold events on this issue during their own presidencies, as
well as the Committee of the Regions and regional representation organisations
for providing a joint political assessment of the progress of multilevel
governance in the European Union.