Governing a multilevel Europe Luc Martens, President VVSG – Mayor Roeselare Brussels, 2 December 2014

VVSG - State of play CEMR representing 57 national associations in 41 countries welcomes the European Code of Conduct on Partnership Principle: Appeal to work in close cooperation with local and regional authorities as fully fledged partners Extend this principle to other EU policies 2 -

VVSG - CEMR report Application of the European Code of Conduct in the 18 Member States (MS), included in the report: -14 MS: fully or partially applied -Degree of involvement differs: from information, stakeholder involvement to strong cooperation -Differences in involvement between the Partnership Agreements and the Operational programmes -Example of Belgium: 3 regions(subnational governments): very strong, but local level much less 3 -

VVSG - Elements for improvement -A “tri-partite”-partnership agreement as the most complete implementation of the Partnership Principle -Local and regional governments should be involved in regular working groups with central governments -A medium term calender of meetings/agenda -An analysis by the Commission of the use of Technical Assistance Remark: No endorsement of the final version of the PA was done by local and regional governments before its submission to the Commission! 4 -

VVSG - Conclusions Involvement of associations of local and regional authorities has been irregular and not initiated by central government Better recognition of the added value of local and regional authorities’ involvement is required In some MS local authorities take part in the Monitoring Committees: crucial! Creation of a EU central-local partnership to monitor performance of the respect the partnership principles CEMR members will follow up! 5 -

Thank you