THE ASSEMBLY OF EUROPEAN REGIONS
The phrase "A Europe of the Regions"  is nowadays an established expression in "Eurospeak".
In 1985 the Assembly of European Regions (AER) was founded, and this political organization of the regions of Europe became the spokesperson of the interests of the regions at the European and the international level. Due to the AER, the role of the regions in Europe has been considerably strengthened. One of the many achievements is the institutionalisation of the participation of the territorial authorities (regions and communes) in the construction of Europe by the creation of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE 1993) and by the establishment of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union (CoR 1994). The latter being set up by stipulations included in the Maastricht Treaty (1991). For the first time the contribution of regions to the EU policy process was recognised by Brussels. In particular the federal member states, such as Germany and Belgium, had pushed very hard for the creation of the CoR, however their original intention was to found a committee comprised of regions with legislative powers. Evidently the more centralist member states, whose regions do not have legislative powers, could not agree with this point of view. The ensuing compromise resulted in a committee of delegates who represent a very broad range of regions, from the powerful German Länder to the small Luxembourg municipalities. The great variety in local government denominations makes defining a European 'region' extremely difficult. Geographically some regions are vast, Norrboten and Västerboten make up the North Sweden Region and cover an area of 154,312km2, while some regions are small, such as the city of Vienna, the länder of Bremen, the Capital Region of Brussels. Some regions have a population which is larger than most of the member states' populations. Some regions elect their own parliaments and possess quite significant legislative power, while others have just a very small amount of autonomy.
According to the definition of the AER a region is the level directly under that of the state.
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"The region is the territorial body of public law established at the level immediately below that of the State and endowed with political self-government. The region shall be recognised in the national constitution or in legislation which guarantees its autonomy, identity, powers and organisational structures."
Declaration on regionalism in Europe 1996
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Based on this definition, a further typology can be established.
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