Local Alliance’s three new position papers call for greater involvement of local and regional authorities in next MFF
The Local Alliance has released three position papers advocating for a stronger role for local and regional authorities in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034. Cities and regions are crucial for delivering the EU budget, and so their involvement in the process should be enhanced.
The Local Alliance is an informal coalition of Europe’s leading local and regional networks - ACR+, CEMR, Climate Alliance, Energy Cities, Eurocities, FEDARENE, ICLEI Europe, and POLIS. These organisations share a vision for the next EU budget: ensuring that local and regional governments have the necessary competencies and resources to implement and reinforce Europe’s resilience, competitiveness, and decarbonisation.
The new papers build on an earlier call for a more ‘grounded’ EU budget and focus on shared governance of strategies, priorities and policies, reforming public support for a grounded Europe, and reinforcing Europe’s industrial competitiveness through a place-based approach.
POLIS, the leading EU network of cities and regions for sustainable transport, supports the initiative for a more inclusive and effective EU budget. As the Commission prepares its MFF proposal, all relevant stakeholders should join and amplify this call to empower European cities and regions.
Institutionalising multilevel governance
Local and regional governments are crucial for an effective and orderly EU budget delivery, yet they remain marginalised in many funding programmes. The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) highlighted this gap: by excluding cities and regions from the design phase, many national plans failed to align with local needs, reducing impact and ownership.
With the paper ‘Shared governance of strategies, priorities and policies for an efficient use of EU Budget and implementation of EU priorities’, the Local Alliance urges multilevel governance to become a standard principle across all EU funding. This means institutional changes towards coordinated planning, implementation, and monitoring among EU, national, regional, and local authorities—each within their competencies but working toward shared goals.
To achieve this, the Local Alliance proposes four key recommendations:
- Involve local and regional governments in the MFF design and decision-making, to help shape it from the outset;
- Empower local governments in implementing and monitoring EU funds, strengthening capacity, transparency, and trust;
- Align multilevel governance structures across sectoral legislation and budgeting, to ensure coherence. This is particularly important for the transport sector, where greater alignment among the different network and government levels is needed;
- Guarantee effective funding delivery and accessible finance at the local level, creating concrete mechanisms to safeguard cohesion.
Reforms responding to real needs
Local and regional authorities are key to delivering EU priorities: they are policymakers, first responders during crises, and major public investors. Their inclusion is essential for effective and grounded policymaking.
The position paper ‘Better Reforms: Reinventing public support for a grounded Europe’ advocates for a stronger involvement of local and regional authorities in EU reform and investment planning. With the next EU budget likely to mirror the RFF—by linking investment with reforms—multilevel governance is critical to avoid implementation gaps.
So, to ensure that combining investment with reform is successful, the Local Alliance recommends:
- Defining the “menu” of reforms by creating structured mechanisms to include local and regional governments. This is crucial for strategic sectors such as energy and mobility, where local and regional authorities implement 70% of European Green Deal legislation and are responsible for 69% of climate-related public spending;
- Guarantee local democracy by introducing safeguard mechanisms to assess the rule of law compliance in Member States, and consequently counter disinformation and reinforce democracy and economic stability;
- Invest in capacities in municipalities and regions through target funding instruments to tackle the capacity constraints of many local and regional authorities;
- Unlock public investment capacities through redefining fiscal assessment criteria to account for the long-term value of local public investments.
Competitiveness for a more cohesive, fairer, and sustainable society
Competitiveness should be considered as a tool to build a stronger, fairer, and more sustainable Europe—not an end in itself. By applying a holistic approach, competitiveness can foster economic growth without compromising social equity and environmental responsibility.
Cities and regions drive Europe’s industrial and economic transformation, accounting for two-thirds of the increase in public investment in 2023—particularly in energy, social affairs, and transport. To ensure that EU competitiveness policies support local and regional economic strengths, the position paper ‘Reinforcing European industry’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy through a place-based approach’ advocates for a place-based approach to competitiveness.
To achieve this, the Local Alliance proposes six recommendations:
- Ensuring local and regional governments and authorities’ access to the future EU competitiveness fund. Explicitly including them as key beneficiaries would support their investments in decarbonisation, infrastructure, and innovation ecosystems, creating tangible economic and social impact;
- Enhancing a territorial approach and multilevel governance to reflect Europe’s territorial diversity. This entails strengthening the multilevel governance of policies and actions, especially through the Competitiveness Coordination Tool;
- Strengthening EU competitiveness through cohesion policy by fostering dynamic local innovation ecosystems and aligning industrial transformation with local priorities;
- Leveraging public procurement for strategic impact to simplify and modernise procurement rules, therefore allowing for greater flexibility and capacity-building support to local and regional authorities;
- Unlock the full potential of urban and regional innovation ecosystems by involving cities and regions in co-designing research priorities and funding calls;
- Promote cross-border collaboration by facilitating joint investment projects, aligning regulatory frameworks, and reducing administrative barriers.
A truly inclusive Europe needs local and regional governments
Given that local and regional governments are responsible for much of the EU MFF’s implementation, they must be formally recognised as key partners through the entire budget cycle. Their involvement is vital to delivering on the EU’s priorities on energy security, competitiveness, decarbonisation, and strategic autonomy—especially in a context of broadened priorities but limited resources.
The three position papers send a clear message: the next MFF must include the local and regional perspectives. Empowering cities and regions ensures a more responsive, effective EU budget—one that reflects territorial needs, strengthens democratic legitimacy, and avoids ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions that alienate citizens from the European project.
Read the full op-ed here.
