Region (Europe)

Region (Europe)

The European Union created a Committee of the Regions to represent Regions of Europe as the layer of EU government administration directly below the nation-state level. The Committee has its headquarters in Brussels.

Reasons given for this include:

• the historic and cultural claims for autonomy in many regions all over the EU
• strengthening the political and economic situation in those regions

The term 'region' as used here includes Wales and Scotland, both of which are non-sovereign countries within the UK; they are recognised as countries by the UK government and are not referred to as 'regions'.

Some nation states which have historically had a strong centralized administration have transferred political power to the regions. Examples of this include the devolution of power in the UK (the Scotland Act 1998, the Government of Wales Act 1998) and the current negotiations in France concerning increased autonomy for Corsica. Some other states have traditionally had strong regions, such as the Federal Republic of Germany; yet others have been structured on the basis of national and municipal government with little in between.