On 6 February, Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă, the Prime Minister of Romania, presented priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU to local and regional leaders. ECR President Rob Jonkman (Alderman in Opsterland in the Netherlands) welcomed the Prime Minister to the European Committee of the Regions and called upon her to help deliver greater localism in the EU.

“We need to aspire towards empowering local communities - not centralising decision-making processes. We need to open up our markets and help create opportunities - not curb innovation or competitiveness. We need to avoid creating a system that leaves our cities and regions dependent on centralised investment, development plans and centrally distributed subsidies”, said Mr Jonkman.

The ECR President explained that as we try to ensure that the benefits of market liberalisation benefit as many of our citizens as possible, we must not fall into the trap of creating a centrally managed system of redistribution. “Such systems were tried in Central and Eastern Europe by the communist regimes and in addition to creating traumas that live on today - they failed”.

According to Mr Jonkman, “local authorities know their areas the best and therefore will be able to identify their investment needs far more effectively than other tiers of government. Such a system of bottom-up decision making is also good for improving democratic engagement”.

Last but not least, local and regional authorities need to be treated as partners in the use of funds –not as stakeholders. This is encoded in the rules governing the use of funds like Cohesion Policy, which account for approximately one third of the EU’s spending. The European Semester on the other hand does not treat local and regional authorities as partners and remains a topdown process. Mr Jonkman welcomed that the Romanian Presidency has taken an interest in this topic and asked the CoR for an opinion on the subject matter. As the CoR rapporteur on this important subject, Mr Jonkman said he looks forward to communicating the position of local and regional leaders in greater detail once the opinion is formally adopted.