A code of conduct on the involvement of the local and regional authorities in the European semester

This report considers how a new Code of Conduct could help ensure the active and structured involvement of Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) in the European Semester. The Semester is the annual cycle of the economic and budgetary policy coordination and also serves to implement the Europe 2020 strategy. It starts in November and operates at EU and country level. Some of its elements apply only to the Eurozone countries. The Semester is a relatively new process which is still evolving in response to a number of challenges: its very broad policy coverage and difficulty in building strong links to the Europe 2020 strategy; the limited extent to which the Country-specific Recommendations (CSR) are implemented; and the weak ownership and engagement in the process at national and sub-national level, including the sub-optimal engagement of LRAs. There have been five 'editions' so far and the sixth, known as 'the 2016 European Semester', is starting in November 2015.