Our priorities

We advocate greater localism in the EU decision-making process, to be pursued through the exercise of power at the lowest practicable level – by the individual where possible and by local or national authorities in preference to supranational bodies. We believe that EU decisions should not exceed the level of intervention necessary. 

Advocating prudency and high value for money in the EU's budgetary policy is one of our priorities. We fight against the ineffective use of the EU budget and the unjustified growth of expenditure on the EU's administration.

We want more use of territorial impact assessments for current and future EU legislation, with the goal of reducing the administrative burden on citizens and businesses. EU legislation must be better adapted to local needs.

We place importance on sharing experiences and assisting in local governance reforms in the CoR's dedicated fora with EU neighbourhood countries, especially those from the Eastern Partnership and Southern Mediterranean. 

Migration must be controlled effectively. The focus of EU migration policy needs to be on safe borders, the fight against human smugglers, and the return of unjustified asylum seekers to their countries of origin.

Another one of our priorities is contributing to the exchange of practices and experiences between different levels of governance in order to prevent radicalisation, leading to terrorism and violent extremism.