On 1-2 June the second edition of the Enlargement days took place in CoR. The Plenary Session was focused on the role of the local and regional authorities in the EU enlargement process. The first session touched upon the "Fundamental first"approach , i.e the conditions pre candidate countries have to meet if they want to aspire to an EU perspective such as rule of law, freedom of expression and respect for fundamental human rights. The second session with a focus on funding instruments showed that more attention has to be placed to strengthening administrative capacity.

EA Group Member and former President of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) Emil Drăghici introduced the Romanian experience in using structural and cohesion funds, and lessons from pre-accession funds. He stressed that even if significant part of the pre-accession programmes has strong impact on local level, the local governments can participate to very little extent in negotiations and priorities setting. With this regard, he proposed further steps to increase knowledge on the EU funding: database, trainings, assistance in partner search, and sharing best practices.