What place should regions and regional Assemblies have in an enlarged Europe?
42. Ms Stuart: I hoped that you would not ask that. The convention sometimes rather grandly compares itself with Philadelphia. I do not agree with it, because Philadelphia did not deal with one issue – slavery -that led to a civil war. When I want to be mischievous I say that the regions are the equivalents of slaves for the convention. There are two extremes in the European models. First, if you talk to the German Länder you will find that they would be happy to cut out Berlin and go straight to Brussels. Bavaria has 115 million people; North-Rhine Westphalia has a larger gross domestic product (GDP) than Spain but will not get a seat at the table unlike Latvia which has only 35 million people. Their national Governments are incredibly, and strangely, relaxed about that. 43. The other extreme is Spain. It gets nervous, although the presidium suggested in September that it would establish a group to examine regional implications. Italy has three different kinds of models, Greece has no
