The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Staffan Nilson, invited Ramon Valcárcel Siso, president of the Committee of the Regions, to attend the latest plenary session of the EESC in order to look at ways of developing political cooperation between the two Committees. The main aim of this action was to join forces in building a Europe "of the people and for the people".

During some EESC plenary debates carried out with the president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, the conclusion raised was that the success of the European project depends on effective participation of all local, regional and civil society players in policy design and implementation and efficient coordination at all levels of governance. In November 2012, the EESC called for more transparency and more effective citizen participation in the EU.

Mr Nilsson and Mr Valcárcel Siso agreed that the EU had everything to gain by incorporating the two Committees' recommendations into their policies and decisions, as those recommendations reflected the expectations and needs of society's political and socio-economic players. They stressed that the upcoming review of the Europe 2020 strategy would provide a major opportunity for the two Committees to come up with a set of complementary guidelines aimed at remedying the strategy's shortcomings and inefficiencies.

Currently, under a cooperation agreement, the CoR and the EESC share premises and pool logistics and translation resources for their advisory and operational work, which provides economies of scale.