Local and Regional Governments in Europe

Foreword
60% of the decisions taken by our towns and regions are influenced by European legislation and
almost 70% of public sector investments in Europe come from local and regional governments.
These two figures alone show the increasingly important part local and regional governments play
in the European economy and in the life of our citizens.
On the global level, the role of towns and regions is recognised as being a vital factor in the transformation
of society to reach the goals set by the United Nations. Towns and regions come across
as key players on topics such as climate change or international cooperation. They are also on the
forefront of overcoming challenges Europe has to face: welcoming refugees, social and economic
challenges…
Unfortunately, just when the role of towns and regions seems vital, their financial resources are
put into question, and we have to constantly fight to defend their capacity to invest and manage
local public services in the interests of their population.
“Structures and competences” is a regular publication of CEMR, it gives an up-to-date overview of
European towns and regions. Since its last edition in 2012, the number of local entities in Europe
has decreased by approximately 15%. Indeed, many reforms have been launched – more than
ten – claiming to fight against the fragmentation of local governments and achieve economies of
scale, taking the risk to lose proximity with citizens.
On the contrary, the number of regions has increased by approximately 10%. The majority of countries
now have a regional level (28, so 4 more than in 2012). This echoes a certain type of modelling
of territorial organisation and the debates on regionalisation, inter-municipal cooperation, metropolisation…
as many initiatives more or less formal, more or less bottom-up, which reveal the need
to associate public local policies to the right territory level. Finally, the competences dilution and
their distribution between sector of governance calls for a stronger coordination according to the
principle of governance in partnership advocated by CEMR.
We would like to thank CEMR’s member associations who contributed to this publication,
which we are sure will, in turn, contribute to strengthening our understanding of local and
regional structures in Europe.
Frédéric Vallier
CEMR Secretary General
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