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The European Union created the Regions of Europe as the layer of EU government administration directly below the nation-state level. The Regions of Europe are represented by the Committee of the Regions headquarters in Brussels.

Reasons for this include:

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

As a result, 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 Britain (the Scotland Act 1998, the Government of Wales Act 1998) and the current negotiations in France concerning increased autonomy for Corsica.

1 Political Influence
2 History
3 Regions
4 References
5 See also

Political Influence

The politics of the regionalism have also had their impact on the pan-European level. The regions of Europe have lobbied for an increased say in EU affairs, especially the German Länder. This has resulted in the creation by the Maastricht Treaty of the Committee of the Regions, and provision for member states to be represented in the Council by ministers from their regional governments.

The desire of the German Länder however has been frustrated by other member states, which are opposed to direct involvement by the regions in EU decision-making. The German Länder successfully lobbied the German government (which has in turn lobbied the European Council) for the 2004 IGC to deal with the division of powers between the EU, national and regional levels of government.

The Council of Europe also has a Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, similar to the EU's Committee of the Regions.

Strengthening economic competition between communities further supports the creation of authentic regions within the EU and almost all EU member states recently have or currently are re-organizing their administration to create competitive EU regions. Often these regions better reflect culture and identity and a sense of common interests.

History

The idea for a representation of regions within the administration of the European Union relates to some regions' long history as autonomous regions. Examples include the Basque Country, which lies in both north-eastern Spain and south-west France, and Wales in the United Kingdom. Both of these regions have growing nationalistic sentiments (see Basque nationalism and Welsh self-government).

Regions

Some small EU member states make up a region on their own; large member states have several regions. Currently there are 139 regions.

member state	region	population	area
Austria	Carinthia	559,404	9,536 km²
	Lower Austria and Upper Austria (incl. Burgenland)	3,200,170	35,120 km²
	Salzburg	515,327	7,154 km²
	Styria	1,183,303	16,392 km²
	Tyrol and Vorarlberg	1,046,295	15,249 km²
	Vienna	1,631,082	414 km²
Belgium	Brussels	1,006,749	161,382 km²
	Flanders	6,043,161	13,522 km²
	Wallonia	3,358,560	16,844 km²
Czech Republic	Bohemia	~6,500,000	52 065 km²
Czech Republic	Moravia (incl. Czech Silesia)	~3,500,000	26,474 km²
Cyprus		~1,000,000	9,250 km²
Denmark		5,415,978	43,094 km²
Estonia		1,332,893	45,226 km²
Finland	Åland	26,711	6,784 km²
	Eastern Finland	588,106	48,726 km²
	Lapland	187,777	98,946 km²
	Oulu	461,000	57,000 km²
	Southern Finland	2,095,416	34,378 km²
	Western Finland	1,839,581	74,185 km²
France	Alsace	1,805,000	8,280 km²
	Aquitaine	3,072,000	41,309 km²
	Auvergne and Limousin	2,054,000	42,955 km²
	Basse-Normandie and Haute-Normandie	3,251,000	29,907 km²
	Bourgogne	1,626,000	31,582 km²
	Bretagne	3,044,000	27,209 km²
	Centre	2,490,000	39,151 km²
	Champagne-Ardenne	1,334,000	25,606 km²
	Corsica	275,000	8,680 km²
	Franche-Comté	1,143,000	16,202 km²
	French Guiana	191,000	83,534 km²
	Guadeloupe	453,000	1,702 km²
	Île-de-France	11,362,000	12,011 km²
	Languedoc-Roussillon	2,497,000	27,376 km²
	Lorraine	2,334,000	23,547 km²
	Martinique	398,000	1,128 km²
	Midi-Pyrénées	2,731,000	45,348 km²
	Nord-Pas de Calais and Picardie	5,909,000	31,813 km²
	Pays-de-la-Loire	3,385,000	32,082 km²
	Poitou-Charentes	1,701,000	25,809 km²
	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	4,743,000	31,400 km²
	Réunion	775,000	2,512 km²
	Rhône-Alpes	5,947,000	43,698 km²
Germany	Baden-Württemberg	10,718,327	35,752 km²
	Bavaria	12,464,997	70,553 km²
	Berlin and Brandenburg	5,962,440	30,369 km²
	Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg	1,738,483	755 km²
	Hesse	6,077,826	21,100 km²
	Lower Saxony and Bremen	8,665,367	48,023 km²
	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	1,790,000	23,170 km²
	North Rhine-Westphalia	18,060,211	34,080 km²
	Rhineland-Palatinate	3,880,000	19,846 km²
	Saarland	1,080,000	2,570 km²
	Saxony	4,300,000	18,413 km²
	Saxony-Anhalt	2,580,626	20,447 km²
	Schleswig-Holstein	2,777,000	15,776 km²
	Thuringia	2,392,000	16,171 km²
Greece	Attica (incl. Central Greece and Thessaly)	5,216,736	33,394 km²
	Crete	623,666	8,336 km²
	Epirus and the Ionian Islands	578,795	11,510 km²
	Macedonia (West M., Central M. and East M. and Thrace)	2,858,975	42,419 km²
	North Aegean and South Aegean	528,152	9,122 km²
	Peloponnese (incl. West Greece)	1,403,577	26,840 km²
Hungary	Central and Northern Hungary	4,114,000	20,347 km²
	Great Plain	2,921,000	36,088 km²
	Transdanubia	3,107,000	36,615 km²
Ireland	Connacht	464,296	17,713 km²
	Leinster	2,105,579	19,774 km²
	Munster	1,100,614	24,608 km²
	Ulster	246,714	8,066 km²
Italy	Abruzzo and Molise	1,594,331	15,232 km²
	Aosta Valley	120,909	3,263 km²
	Apulia	4,023,957	19,366 km²
	Basilicata	596,821	9,995 km²
	Calabria	2,007,392	15,081 km²
	Campania	5,725,098	13,590 km²
	Emilia-Romagna	4,030,220	22,123 km²
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia	1,191,588	7,856 km²
	Latium	5,145,805	17,208 km²
	Liguria	1,572,197	5,420 km²
	Lombardy	9,108,645	23,863 km²
	Marche and Umbria	2,318,811	18,150 km²
	Piedmont	4,331,334	25,400 km²
	Sardinia	1,637,639	24,090 km²
	Sicily	4,972,124	25,703 km²
	Trentino-South Tyrol	950,495	13,607 km²
	Tuscany	3,516,296	22,990 km²
	Veneto	4,577,408	18,391 km²
Latvia		2,290,237	64,589 km²
Lithuania		3,596,617	65,200 km²
Luxembourg		468,571	2,586 km²
Malta		398,534	316 km²
Netherlands	Friesland (incl. Drenthe and Groningen)	1,700,700	8,357 km²
	Limburg	1,143,000	2,167 km²
	North Brabant–Zeeland	2,785,200	6,730 km²
	North Holland and South Holland	6,036,900	5,520 km²
	Utrecht–Gelderland (incl. Flevoland and Overijssel)	4,589,000	11,114 km²
Poland	Greater Poland (incl. Lubusz and West Pomerania)	6,066,896	66,712 km²
	Lower Silesia (incl. Opole)	3,949,452	29,360 km²
	Silesia and Lesser Poland	7,963,996	27,438 km²
	Pomerania, Kuyavia-Pomerania and Warmia-Masuria	5,688,337	60,466 km²
	Galicia (Holy Cross, Lublin, Podlasie, and Subcarpathia)	6,779,455	74,848 km²
	Masovia and Łódź	7,732,113	53,817 km²
Portugal	Azores	241,763	2,333 km²
	Continental Portugal	10,566,212	92,391 km²
	Madeira Islands	~250,000	797 km²
Slovakia		5,379,455	49,036 km²
Slovenia		2,001,114	20,273 km²
Spain	Andalusia	7,849,799	87 268 km²
	Aragon	1,217,514	47 719 km²
	Asturias	1,056,789	10 604 km²
	Balearic Islands	916,968	4 992 km²
	Basque Country	2,108,281	7 234 km²
	Canary Islands	1,843,755	7 447 km²
	Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha (incl. Cantabria and Madrid)	10,776,240	187,002 km²
	Catalonia	6,506,440	32 114 km²
	Ceuta	76,152	28 km²
	Extremadura	1,073,050	41 634 km²
	Galicia	2,737,370	29 574 km²
	Melilla	69,184	20 km²
	Murcia	1,226,993	11 313 km²
	Navarre and La Rioja	851,242	15,436 km²
	Valencia	4,692,449	23,255 km²
Sweden	Götaland	4,278,605	87,173 km²
	Norrland	1,175,525	243,635 km²
	Svealand	3,441,580	80,136 km²
United Kingdom	East of England	5,388,140	19,120 km²
	London	7,420,600	1,580 km²
	Northern Ireland	1,685,267	13,843 km²
	North West England and North East England	9,245,279	22,757 km²
	Scotland	5,062,011	78,782 km²
	East Midlands	4,172,179	15,627 km²
	Gibraltar	27,776	7 km²
	South East England	8,000,550	19,096 km²
	South West England	4,928,458	23,829 km²
	Wales	2,903,085	20,779 km²
	West Midlands	5,267,337	13,004 km²
	Yorkshire and the Humber	4,964,838	15,420 km²