Rob Jonkman is rapporteur for the Committee of the Regions' opinion on improving the governance of the European Semester: a code of conduct for the involvement of local and regional authorities. The opinion looks at how the EU tool for coordination economic and fiscal policy coordination can be improved through a more localist approach.

The European Semester is the main tool for economic and fiscal policy coordination at EU level, during which Member States align their budgetary and economic policies with the recommendations agreed at EU level. The coordination process currently has limited success. The country-specific recommendations, as tailored policy guidance to Member

States, are one of the key products under the European Semester yet their implementation is very low. At the beginning of 2016 only 4% of the 2015 country-specific recommendations showed 'substantial progress' with 48% showing only 'limited' or 'no progress' at all.

 Local and regional authorities have underlined on many occasions that a more bottom-up approach is needed to the European Semester, highlighting that 40 per cent of the 2016 country-specific recommendations could not be fully implemented without the active role of the local and regional authorities.

Underlining the need for greater localism, the CoR rapporteur Rob Jonkman said "involving local and regional authorities in the European Semester as partners will not only give them a voice but help better match the goals with the delivery on the ground."

In the annual analysis of the economic and social situation in the Member States published by the Commission on 22 February 2017, the Commission called on Members States to explain how regional and local authorities were involved in the elaboration and implementation of reforms, recognising the need of more ownership on the local and regional level.

"For a sound territorial basis we need to enrich the Semester as a whole (the Annual Growth Survey, National Reform Programmes and Country-Specific Recommendations) with territorial trends and impact of EU policies. We also need to define standing arrangements to give local and regional authorities the opportunity to take part in the preparation, review and implementation of the reforms and programmes. If we adopt a code of conduct that enables a more bottom-up inclusive process then we will also be giving local and regional government a voice in areas that concern them. The recommendations already give details on what we should be doing so we should be given a voice in the process as well," said rapporteur Rob Jonkman.

Underlining that the code of conduct on partnership in the framework of cohesion policy's ESI Funds could be used an example for a code of conduct for the Semester, Rob Jonkman said "as local and regional governments we already provide data and input to the Commission for the ESI Funds. This existing data can be used to improve the linkages between EU policies and investment agenda."