After an introduction to the topic and the presentation of the JEF-positions we focused on the role the Regions and Nations should play in a future EU.



There were several proposals and recommendations:



- The Committee of Regions should have one vote in the European Council in order to gain importance



- The European Union should have only one external border and inside it should be divided into regions and by doing so the Nation States should be abolished



- Because of the many differences it was considered by one working group member to create states out of the Balkan regions in order to give each of them a stronger international voice

- There was a discussion about having (in the Committee of Regions) one vote per region, not depending on the number of representatives. But no general agreement could be achieved on that. There was also the proposal to rearrange the number of Committee members.

After discussing the Articles of the draft Constitution (8, 17, 19, 23) there was a general agreement that the Committee of Regions - which already exists but is powerless and only an advisory body - should be maintained but improved in order to have a stronger voice. It was considered that it could become a “sub-chamber” inside the Council although having in mind that this might be difficult because there is no homogeneity inside the Committee.