The Council of Regions

The Council of Regions is a national participation format within the site selection procedure. Its task is to support the regional conferences nationally, promote dialogue between affected regions, pick up rival regional interests and mediate between the perspectives and needs in each case.

Standbild zum Erklärvideo zum Rat der Regionen

The Council of Regions supplements the regional conferences with the aim of providing a national perspective in the search for a disposal site. Among other things, it will help reconcile rival regional interests and explain the results reached by BASE and BGE mbH. Representatives of the regional conferences and the waste storage communities will work together and share their ideas and experiences.

Organisation and working method

BASE will organise a Council of Regions Conference after the regional conferences have been set up. It will support the regional conferences’ processes during all the phases of the site selection procedure. BASE will set up a business office to support the format’s work and provide financial resources for the duration of the process.

Composition and tasks

The Council of Regions consists of representatives from the regional conferences and from the communities with storage sites for radioactive waste. The maximum number of participants will not exceed 30 persons.

Regional conferences

The representative committees of the respective regional conferences send delegates to the Council of the Regions. If a siting region is eliminated from the procedure, the representatives of the respective regional conference must also withdraw from the Council of Regions.

Further information

Interim storage sites

The participants from the interim storage sites are determined by the local authorities. The number of representatives from the interim storage sites should correspond to the number of delegated representatives of a regional conference.

Tasks

The national participation format will continually support the work of the regional conferences and help settle conflicting interests in the site regions. The affected regions and their representatives will be able to consult each other and develop joint skills as well as discuss general strategies to promote regional development in the site regions.

What is the Council of regions?

What role does the Council of regions play in the repository search process? This is explained in the following short video.