An estimated 70% of the EU legislation requires action by sub-national
governments.
Recent years have seen the extension to the regional and local level of
technical support traditionally provided to national administrations, as
well as the development of a network of contact points in municipalities on
issues linked to EU integration. However, the
opinion
says "cooperation must be stepped up between the central and local level in
the integration process", calls for the earlier involvement of local and
regional authorities, and presses for additional support for reform of
local and regional administrations coupled with more detailed performance
indicators on the involvement of local and regional authorities in the
overall reform process.
Priority areas identified in the CoR's opinion, which was drafted by
Anna Magyar
(HU/ECR), member of the County Council of Csongrád Megye, are: economic and
investment development, public administration reform including local public
service development, agriculture and food security, climate policy and
green transition, public procurement, and social policy.
The CoR called for some years for the Technical Assistance and Information
Exchange instrument (TAIEX) to be extended to the local and regional level
before the Commission decided to do so. The CoR believes there would also
be value in extending the Support for Improvement in Governance and
Management (SIGMA) initiative to subnational levels of administration in
enlargement countries.
The opinion also assessed the progress made by individual countries that
are seeking to join the EU, voicing support for opening accession talks
with North Macedonia and Albania and for easing visa requirements for
Kosovo. In keeping with the emphasis placed in the EU accession process,
the country-specific reviews of the Commission's reports underscore the
need for more progress on issues related to the rule of law. The opinion
argues that local and regional authorities, "due to their specific role as
local policy-makers and public service providers, can play a greater role
in addressing some shortcomings in the area of the rule of law and
fundamental rights, but also in strengthening transparent and accountable
governance of local policies and better protecting the rights of vulnerable
groups".
The opinion was drawn up to provide a local and regional perspective on the
European Commission's 2021 progress reports for enlargement countries. It
does not consider Ukraine and Moldova, which were accepted as candidates
for membership of the EU in June 2022, nor Georgia, whose status as a
candidate was conditioned on further reforms.
The CoR works with local and regional authorities in the Western Balkans
and Turkey through structured dialogues, in the form either of joint
consultative committees (JCC) with a fixed membership and work programmes,
or of working groups, with regional representatives from the partner
countries varying according to the topics discussed and the location of the
meeting. The CoR has JCCs with Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, and
two working groups, one for other countries in the Western Balkans and one
for Turkey. The opinion calls for the creation of a JCC with Albania.
The central moment of the CoR's work on enlargement each year are the Enlargement Days, with sessions for individual countries and a plenary session bringing
together local and regional politicians from each country. This year's
Enlargement Days will be held on 6-7 July. The situation of young people
will be a central theme. The event will this year be extended to
politicians from Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.