ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to complement Simona Piattoni and Justus Schonlau’s work, adding the perspective of the “other secretariats” of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), officials that support the elected local and regional CoR members and their national delegations or regional contingents. However, the CoR’s own agentic power and institutional autonomy versus the authorities that CoR is meant to represent mediatise and constraint the ability of subnational authorities to influence European Union (EU) decisions. The national delegations appoint the members of the CoR Bureau, the body that sets the broad strategy of CoR – although this role was later shared with the Conference of Presidents. The other great cleavage throughout CoR’s evolution has been between the national delegations and the political groups – most vividly expressed in the evolving relationship between their respective secretariats and of them vis-a-vis the mem.
