Key recommendations from the EU-EaP Local Leaders Seminar

Local government associations (LGAs), EU institutions, think tanks, NGOs and senior national representatives (including Moldova’s EU Ambassador and the Deputy Head of Ukraine’s Mission to the EU) gathered in Brussels on 28 November 2024 for a seminar on engagement of local governments in EU integration. This event was hosted by PLATFORMA and organised by SALAR International.

The seminar yielded several recommendations for how EU engagement with local authorities in candidate countries could be strengthened:

• Institute a ‘partnership principle’ for the accession process. As with EU funding, make clear that the EU expects local and regional representatives to be engaged in preparations at the national level. This could be included in a revised enlargement methodology and assessed briefly as part of the annual enlargement package country reports, which already address issues such as local public administration reform and fiscal decentralisation.
• Reach out from the EU institutions to Local Government Associations (LGAs) in candidate countries on the specific needs of local governments in key areas such as environment and public procurement.
• Involve local and regional representatives in national preparations, including consultation on adaptation of legislation and national plans for adopting the acquis, working groups and other structures preparing the accession negotiations, and capacity-building efforts as well as programming and monitoring of EU funds.
• Consult local and regional authorities on the drafting of reform agendas and priority lists of projects to be funded through investment frameworks (Western Balkans Investment Framework, Ukraine Investment Framework, Neighbourhood Investment Platform).

Turning specifically to funding, to better integrate local and regional governments into EU enlargement budget planning, participants called for:

• Early involvement: create advisory bodies within each country’s EU representation to integrate local and regional priorities into funding strategies. These bodies should collaborate with the CoR and CEMR to represent local interests at the EU level.
• Enhanced funding accessibility: develop a platform for local and regional authorities to access EU project funding opportunities. Simplify application processes, increase transparency, and offer technical assistance to support smaller local governments, particularly in disadvantaged areas. Consider higher EU co-financing rates for locally led projects to encourage citizen engagement.
• Capacity building: Provide funding for technical assistance, training, and capacity-building programmes to help local and regional authorities in candidate countries meet EU standards. Encourage decentralised cooperation through knowledge exchange, mentoring, and peer reviews.
• Special funds for Ukraine: Continue allocating dedicated reconstruction funds for Ukraine to rebuild critical infrastructure, healthcare, and education systems, ensuring local and regional involvement to support a stable post-conflict transition.

As legislation for the EU’s post-2027 external instruments takes shape, LGAs will need to keep pressing the case for local engagement. Among the suggestions they could put forward:

• Make partnership with local and regional authorities mandatory for pre-accession and neighbourhood funding instruments, as under cohesion policy.
• Dedicate a share of resources to projects involving local authorities. Firm commitments in the legislation are needed, since indicative commitments in the preamble have proven insufficient.
• Reserve a share of national budget support for sub-national authorities. As under the Ukraine facility, local and regional authorities in Moldova and the Western Balkans should benefit from budget support conditional on progress with reforms. LGAs will naturally have to advocate for a fair share, but recognition from the EU of the local role in implementing reform agendas would help.
• Recognise the role of local authorities in creating an enabling environment for flagship investments. As EU external assistance shifts towards large-scale investments through guarantees and blended financing (see also the Global Gateway), it is important not to forget capacity building to ensure the identification, management and oversight of investments. Local authorities have a central role in this effort.
• Explore scope for pooling investment framework funds to enable smaller investments at local level. LGAs could play a role in facilitating such mechanisms in areas such as renovation of public buildings or energy-efficient street-lighting.
• Reinstate a dedicated budget line or window for local projects that can help with visibility and citizen engagement. Support for local environmental action plans, networks of EU focal points, small grant funds for rural municipalities, and communication with citizens – actions such as these may not fit neatly into reform and growth facilities but could be equally important in ensuring that EU integration benefits all and is seen to do so.

Read the full conclusions of the EU-EaP Local Leaders Seminar.