Committee of the Regions in the frame of EU started working

In the beginning of February 2015 – after votings to the European Parliament – the Committee of the Regions met again, in it there are 350 representatives from 28 members of the European Unity. The Treaty of Lisbon namely defines that neither the Commission, nor the Council or the Parliament of the EU are allowed to accept conclusions regarding the local or regional administration without prior consultation to the Committee of the Regions. The Carinthian Governor Dr.Peter Kaiser represents Carinthia in this political body (he is its member since the Year 2013); Slovenia however-which is regionally not divided – is represented by several Mayors. Among them there is also the Mayor of Slovenska Bistrica (and a member of the AACC, too) Dr. Ivan Žagar , namely from the Year 2011 onwards. We contacted the Mayor Dr. Žagar, who is the leader of the Slovenian delegation in the Committee of the Regions and a member of the Presidency of this Committee, as a member he is active in Commissions COTER ( Commission for Territorial Cohesion) and ENVE (Commission for Environment, Climate changes and Energy) for his standpoint: »Regarding the Transatlantic partnership for Trade and Investments (TTIP), which was discussed at the last plenum meeting I think, that the very high level of the European standard of protection (regarding the protection of environment, climate, protection of animals, protection of food, rights of consumers and rights for data protection) should be kept and preserved, in no way can we allow the lowering of these standards.« The Carinthian Governor Dr. Peter Kaiser is writing on his website, that he endeavoured for the protection of the social and ecological standard in the discussion at the last plenum meeting about the trade agreement between the EU and the USA (TTIP). »The rights of the corporate groups can not prevail above human rights«, such is his conclusion.