Despite existing specific provisions, the involvement of local and regional authorities in the preparation, implementation and monitoring of post-Covid-19 national recovery plans remains “inadequately weak”, say the European Committee of the Regions and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, based on a third consultation carried out in the first quarter of 2024 with 36 sub-national organisations in 22 EU countries.
In particular, the parties questioned criticised the highly-centralised nature of Member States’ management of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Virtually all of them believe that the main barrier to their involvement in implementing the national recovery plan is the lack of an appropriate framework permitting it.
More of the local authorities surveyed than in previous consultations also pointed to internal shortcomings in terms of expertise and administrative capacity. And they point to the risk of overlaps between the implementation of the RRF and the European Structural Funds.
Finally, the territorial distribution of aid from national recovery plans is perceived as unfair by almost half of the entities that took part in the consultation. And a third of the panel believes that the European Recovery Plan, NextGenerationEU, does not contribute to territorial cohesion, despite the fact that the instrument is based on the legal basis of the Treaty, which promotes such an objective.
See the results of the consultation: https://aeur.eu/f/bsp (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)