On 29 May 2019 our ECR Bureau Member Roberto Ciambetti, President of the Regional Council of Veneto in Italy, spoke during the hearing of the CoR Members on the European Commission's communication on better regulation. The hearing took place at the Committee on European Union Policies of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome.

During the parliamentary hearing, Roberto Ciambetti stressed that he considered it essential that political and regulatory decisions are taken at the most appropriate level to achieve objectives, therefore "as close to citizens as possible".

In particular, Mr Ciambetti underlined that "given that the role of the regions is crucial when it comes to implementing and applying EU legislation on the ground, we [local and regional authorities] must ensure that the views of the regions are taken into account more seriously by the European institutions."

"The regions, and consequently the European Committee of the Regions, deserve a stronger role in Brussels. We need to reflect on how to strengthen the position of the regions in Europe. On the one hand, by strengthening the European Committee of the Regions. On the other hand, by extending the use of the yellow card procedure to block harmful legislative proposals from Brussels in the regional parliaments."

The so-called yellow card procedure is a procedure under which the national parliaments of EU Member States can object to a draft legislative act on grounds of the principle of subsidiarity.

The ECR Group calls for EU legislation to be more consistent in complying with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, and to be less dense in legislative terms, leaving greater freedom of action to the local and regional levels.