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THOMAS Carol

Senior Adviser, Governance, Gender Equality, Local Democracy

THOMAS Carol
In EU budget, EU budget, Governance, Governance, Impact community Society, Impact community Society, Press, Publications

Recovery & Resilience Facility funds 

RRF Consultation - News

Local and regional governments warn of weak involvement, risks of fund misallocation, and limited ownership of recovery plans 

Read full study

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is the EU’s largest ever economic support plan, launched in response to the COVID-19 crisis. While national governments designed National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) to guide investments and reforms until 2026, a new consultation by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) highlights a persistent problem: local and regional authorities (LRAs) remain sidelined in the process. 

Weak involvement in preparation and governance 

The survey, conducted in early 2022 among 26 associations across 19 EU member states, shows that most LRAs had little to no influence on defining objectives, reforms, or investments. Compared with 2021, dialogue with national governments slightly improved, but respondents stress that these consultations had minimal impact on final plans. Governance of the process remains largely top-down. 

Mixed views on the plans’ content 

Respondents were broadly positive about the NRRP’s contribution to the green (37% earmark) and digital transitions (20% earmark). However, they expressed doubts about the plans’ ability to advance territorial cohesion, one of the RRF’s six pillars. The interplay between NRRPs and other EU funds such as the ERDF or Cohesion Fund also remains unclear and inconsistent, raising fears of overlaps and inefficient spending. 

Implementation: low ownership, high risks 

When it comes to implementation, optimism is scarce. Only a handful of LRAs reported having a meaningful role in monitoring, adapting, or co-managing projects. Ownership is strikingly low, despite LRAs’ frontline role in pandemic response and recovery. The main barriers identified were a lack of political will at the national level and tight or unsuitable formats and timelines, rather than a lack of local capacity. 

These shortcomings translate into serious risks: 

  • Failure to meet milestones and targets 
  • Misallocation of funds 
  • Increased territorial disparities 
  • Public distrust in the EU and national institutions 

Calls for stronger EU-level monitoring 

To improve outcomes, respondents strongly supported enhanced dialogue between the EU and local/regional representatives and the creation of an early warning mechanism to flag delays or problems in implementation. 

Conclusion 

Two years after the pandemic outbreak, Europe’s recovery is underway, but its governance remains overly centralised. The CoR-CEMR consultation warns that without meaningful involvement of local and regional governments, the RRF risks missing its objectives, weakening both recovery efforts and citizens’ trust in the European project. 

Read the study here 

For more information, contact: 

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Press

Impact of COVID-19

COVID 19 - News

Territorial impacts of COVID-19 and policy responses in European regions and cities

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives. At the same time, local and regional governments face the most hard test of their capacity to achieve political, economic and social responses to this crisis. What solutions have they come up with to minimise setbacks and to change the direction for the better? What recommendations can we draw from these insights? 

These are some of the questions we will be examining in an online discussion on “Territorial impacts of Covid-19 and policy answers in European regions and cities”, on 11 May 2022.

This workshop will present the key overall policy findings and recommendations to emerge from the ESPON Covid 19 project. The workshop will bring together the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), associations of local and regional governments, and other relevant networks, in an interactive process designed to:

  • discuss and share information on the regional policy responses to the crisis;
  • learn about innovative good practice policies that emerged during the pandemic;
  • assess project recommendations (policy, governance, territorial and financial) that can help regions recover from the crisis and build resilience in the future.

CEMR will be represented by Durmish Guri, Director – External Resources and Knowledge Strategy, and Carol Thomas, Adviser – Governance and Institutional Relations.

You can find the agenda attached and you can register today by following the link here. The link for the workshop will be sent to the registered participants some days before the event.

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Local democracy, Press

G7

Twinning REALISE - News 2024

Urban alliance formed to support German G7 Presidency

The Association of German Cities (DST, a CEMR member), ICLEI and the Global Parliament of Mayors have launched an urban alliance to accompany the German G7 Presidency. The alliance will support the G7 Presidency programme and provide urban perspectives throughout.

The German G7 Presidency began at the beginning of 2022 and will culminate with the G7 summit on 26-28 June in Schloss Elmau (Bavaria). For more information on the urban alliance, please consult the press releases of ICLEI (in English) and DST (in German).

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Local democracy, Press

#DemocracyUnderPressure

Belarus - News 2022

CEMR joins 2022 campaign for democracy in Belarus

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) joins this year’s campaign on #DemocracyUnderPressure in Belarus initiated by the Young European Federalists (JEF). During last year’s campaign, many European cities lit up their town halls in white-red-white, the colours of the flag of free Belarus. The following statement has been adopted by CEMR.

We support the Belarusian people’s wishes for a peaceful democratic transition in the country at all levels – including making local governance systems more democratic. This process follows the Presidential elections of August 2020, which were neither free nor fair.
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CEMR recallslast year’s statement and urges the EU institutions and national governments to strengthen assistance to Belarusian civil society, including to organisations promoting local democracy and municipal autonomy, which are a genuine training ground for democratic citizenship and the rule of law.

We express our solidarity towards border cities and regions in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and we welcome the European Commission’s proposition on the temporary legal and practical measures to address the emergency situation at the EU’s external border with Belarus.

We ask our members, like last year, to illuminate their public buildings in the colour of the Belarusian flag on 25 March unofficial day of freedom in Belarus, celebrated annually by the democratic opposition.

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Local democracy, Press

Rights and values

Democracy - News Section

Discover the “rights and values” programme for the period 2021-2027

The presidency of the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the rights and values programme for the period 2021-2027.

Funding through this programme aims at protecting rights and values enshrined in the EU treaties in order to sustain open, democratic and inclusive societies. It will have a substantial overall budget of maximum €1.55 billion.

The programme will have a budget of €641.7 million, with an additional allocation of maximum €912 million and it sets out four specific objectives:

  • to promote equality and rights, including gender equality, anti-discrimination and the rights of children
  • to promote citizens engagement and participation in the democratic life of the EU and to raise awareness of the common European history
  • to fight violence, notably against children and women
  • to protect and promote EU values

The newly introduced objective to protect and promote EU values will receive a substantial allocation of € 689.5 million. An amount of € 91.2 million will be left unattributed so as to be able to tackle any emerging needs and future challenges.

To achieve this, the programme will support civil society organisations and other stakeholders active at local, regional, national and transnational level, and encourage civic and democratic participation.

The provisional political agreement reached today will have to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. The necessary steps will be undertaken at the beginning of next year.

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Local democracy, Press

Future of Europe

Democracy - News

Local and EU leaders’ debate: time to strengthen European democracy from the bottom-up!

With the Conference on the Future of Europe, citizens across the continent have a unique opportunity to organise local events and make their voice heard to shape the direction of our Union. But how can we foster citizens’ participation? And what visions do we have for municipalities and regions in the future of Europe?

Last week, ahead of our Policy Committee meeting, local and regional leaders, senior EU official and representatives of civil society took part in a debate to discuss precisely these questions.

Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, emphasised that European democracy must not be a top-down process. “Once a mayor, always a mayor,” she said. “As a former mayor, I know all politics is local.”

Mayors and regional leaders must make their voices heard at the Conference. The Croatian commissioner said it was impossible to know what the Conference’s outcome would be but that it was important to already look for ways to embed citizens’ participation in decision-making.

Taking local action to involve citizens

Involving ordinary citizens in European debates and decisions is not always easy however. Developments in Brussels and Strasbourg too often seems remote and abstract. That is why the French city of Rennes has invited local citizens to participate through municipal projects.

Flavie Boukhenoufa, Deputy Mayor of Rennes, presented Labo Europe, an organisation helping citizen get involved in and better understand the EU. This year the “Lab” launched a campaign to develop a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) for Rennes. Citizens are able to send in their ideas and participate in online debates to create the city’s proposal for a European action.

The final choice will be presented on Europe Day on 9 May. “We aim to speak not with experts but with citizens, even those who have no knowledge about the EU”, said Boukhenoufa. Get inspired by checking out this video and website on Rennes’ citizen initiative

People across Europe can provide their input to the Conference by organising local events and registering these with the official online platform. Servane Metzger, part of the Cabinet of the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, highlighted the importance of these local events in terms of engaging people and reflecting the sensibilities of different regions.

Metzger raised the possibility of maintaining the platform into the future: “The platform is an extremely powerful tool to map events. It’s really easy to see events that are nearby, that way we reach local people, not only EU specialists.”

What future for Europe?

The health of European democracy is also affected by the state of national and local democracy.  Mayor of Gdansk and CEMR Executive President Aleksandra Dulkiewicz stressed that we cannot take democracy for granted and urged protecting the next European elections from digital threats and outside interference.

Vibrant local democracy can also be a bulwark against negative developments at national level. Dulkiewicz called on the Conference to support NGOs and local and regional governments to counter rising authoritarianism. “These two pillars should be strengthened because threats to democracy, rule of law, human rights and transparency in one EU country can affect the whole community”, she said.

Jordanka Fandakova, the Mayor of Sofia and CEMR Executive President, highlighted the importance of the digital divide, with rural areas in particular often lacking connectivity. She called for making equal Internet access a priority. “Digital strategies should not only be focused on big cities, but also take into consideration the needs of small towns and communities”, she said.

No one can say what will result from the Conference. Eva Maydell, a Bulgarian MEP and President of the European Movement International (EMI), argued that pandemic showed the power of European solidarity, but also the need to strengthen our continent’s autonomy. She stressed that the EU can only maintain trust if the Conference delivers results: “Like every political project, the EU is based on a story and its ability to meet the promises it makes to its citizens.”

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Press

CEMR and CoR investigation

Take our survey on recovery plansThis article will soon be translated into French.

A year ago, CEMR and the Committee of the Regions joined forces to run a survey to determine the extent to which municipalities, regions and their associations have been involved in preparing national post-COVID Recovery and Resilience Plans. Each national plan must be approved by Brussels in order to access EU recovery funds. The results showed that, with a few exceptions, the disappointing extent to which local governments were able to shape their national recovery plans.

rnCEMR and the Committee of the Regions are now running a second survey to determine municipalities, regions and their associations’ involvement in the implementation of the recovery plans. The survey can already be completed in English and other languages will become available by 1 February. Completion should only take 5-10 minutes. The deadline for response is 1 March 2022.

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Impact community Society, Press, Publications

TERRI – mapping territorial reforms

Terri - News 2022

Discover “TERRI”: a new online tool mapping territorial reforms and powers in Europe

Discover the online tool

How is Europe’s complex patchwork of local and regional governments evolving? How have the responsibilities of municipalities, counties and regions changed in recent years, marked by environmental and health crises? What examples of successful territorial reforms can inspire others?

To answer these questions, we present to you a new digital report entitled, ‘Territorial Governance, Powers and Reforms in Europe’, or TERRI Report for short. This online tool highlights territorial reforms and decentralisation trends over the past decade in 40 countries. It also analyses the changing nature of relationships between central and subnational governments.

In light of the pandemic, this edition zooms in on local health responsibilities in different countries and evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on local health systems. TERRI visualises trends with numerous charts. In just a few clicks, you have access to individual country profiles, an interactive map and recommendations to policymakers for undertaking successful territorial reforms. There is also a unique tool for side-by-side comparisons of different countries’ systems of local government.

The TERRI Report is based on research by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), gathering data from its member associations on the state of local and regional governments across Europe.

The trends reshaping local Europe

While the situation in different European nations is necessarily diverse, the TERRI Report has identified several common trends.

Europe today is made up of 114,534 towns and cities, 1058 provinces and counties, and 353 regions. There have been reforms reducing the number of municipalities or regions in several countries. These typically aimed to consolidate the territories concerned into larger entities. Portugal, Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Turkey for example, all saw drastic reductions in the number of municipalities, while Norway and France considerably reduced the number of regions.

National associations of local and regional governments emerge as central players in both territorial reforms and healthcare systems. As regards healthcare, associations play a key role through activities such as sharing expert information and best practices amongst their members and in negotiating healthcare roles and budgets with national governments.

In many countries, there has been a decentralisation of healthcare responsibilities. This typically takes the form of increased healthcare responsibilities for subnational governments and/or more healthcare coordination between levels of government.

These are just a few of the changes that are affecting local life in our municipalities and regions. To find out more, explore the TERRI Report at: terri.cemr.eu

For more information, contact:

THOMAS Carol
In EU budget, EU budget, Governance, Governance, Impact community Cohesion, Impact community Cohesion, Local finances, Local finances, Press, Publications, Territorial development

Boosting public investment capacities 

COVID19 finances - news

Rethinking EU economic governance to empower local investment and drive sustainable recovery 

Read full position paper

The COVID-19 crisis has reshaped Europe’s economic landscape and highlighted the essential role played by local and regional governments. From enforcing public health measures to supporting vulnerable communities, municipalities and regions have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s immediate and long-term impacts, often while facing steep declines in revenues. 

As the EU reflects on the future of its economic governance, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) urges a rethink of the Stability and Growth Pact to better align it with today’s realities and tomorrow’s challenges. 

Local governments account for nearly half of public investment in the EU, yet current fiscal rules often restrict their capacity to finance long-term projects. CEMR’s position paper identifies several ways the framework could evolve to support recovery, green and digital transitions, and social inclusion. These include: 

  • Stronger multi-level governance and genuine consultation with local authorities in EU economic coordination; 
  • Greater fiscal flexibility to support sustainable and long-term local investments; 
  • Addressing the investment backlog through accessible financing and capacity building; 
  • Establishing a dedicated European municipal and regional investment facility within the EIB to boost green and digital development; 
  • Ensuring that local-level contributions to the EU Green Deal are not blocked by rigid budget rules. 

Reforming EU economic governance is an opportunity to recognise and unleash the potential of Europe’s cities and regions. A more balanced, investment-friendly approach will strengthen resilience, equity and sustainable growth across the Union. 

Read the position paper here 

For more information, contact: 

THOMAS Carol
In Impact community Society, Local democracy, Press

Council of Europe 

What we do - vision banner 2

Recruitment notice: Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is looking for a new Secretary General. The role requires extensive senior-level management experience and an understanding of international organisations.

The Congress strengthens local and regional democracy in 47 Member States in accordance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government and promotes human rights and the rule of law at local and regional levels. To find out more and apply, please consult the Recruitment Notice (in English and French).

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