The Conference of European Regional Legislature Assemblies – CALRE
Background
CALRE was founded in Oviedo, Spain 1997. It brings together the ‘chairs’ of the legislative federal state parliaments of Europe – i.e. the parliamentary leaders of sub-national parliaments or assemblies, rather than Member State level national parliaments. Only regions within European Union member states may become part of CALRE, and the extent to which they have done so varies considerably according to the degree of regionalism in each state.
CALRE currently consists of 74 regions from eight EU Member States, representing more than 200 million people:
- The parliaments of the Spanish autonomous communities
- The Italian regional councils
- The assemblies of the Belgian regions and communities
- The parliaments of both the Austrian and German Länder
- The autonomous parliament of Åland (Finland)
- The regional assemblies of the Azores and Madeira (Portugal)
- The devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the United Kingdom)