The ‘Europe with the Regions’ Before the Court of Justice

This article analyses the case-law of the CJEU concerning the re-gions. It argues that there is a discrepancy between the progressive framing of an ‘Europe with the regions’ in the political sphere and the limited impact of the Court in this field. This discrepancy does not emerge everywhere, nor does it emerge with the same intensity in all sectors. Indeed, in a number of areas the CJEU has acknowledged the role and responsibilities of the regions. Examples include the right/duty of the regions to implement EU obligations, the protection of regional languages, as well as the ‘sufficient autonomy’ test devel-oped by the CJEU in relation State aid. There is no ‘ideological oppo-sition’ of the CJEU to an increasing ‘regionalisation’ of the EU. There are, however, structural hindrances which prevent the Court from promoting further advancements of the status of the regions in the European edifice, particularly as regards their participation in EU pro-cesses. Since the EU remains an ‘union of states’, the ‘Europe with the regions’ has developed so far, and is likely to continue to develop, via advancements reflected in policy-making practices, soft law ar-rangements and Treaty amendments, rather than via the ‘judge-made federalism' of the Court