The role of local and regional authorities in the implementation of Europe 2020 : analysis of 2015 national reform programmes

In the words of the European Commission "All Member States have committed to the Europe 2020 strategy. However, each country has different economic circumstances and translates the overall EU objectives into national targets in its National Reform Programme - a document which presents the country's policies and measures to sustain growth and jobs and to reach the Europe 2020 targets. The National Reform Programme is presented in parallel with its Stability/Convergence Programme, which sets out the country's budgetary plans for the coming three or four years". The research results are the main findings on the involvement of Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) in the preparation of the National Reform Programmes (NRPs). The analysis first highlights the main findings from the 2015 NRPs and secondly presents a comparative analysis with earlier reform programmes covering the years from 2011 to 2014. Furthermore, the study provides an overview of all 28 NRPs of the EU Member States. These summaries of each reform programme (country fiches) comprise introductory information about the regions and their role in the Member State as well as an overview on the regional disparities in the country. The summaries also study how the local and regional actors are represented in the preparation and implementation process of the reform programmes and if there are explicit references to their contribution. Furthermore, the country fiches make observations about the role of the LRAs in implementing NRPs/CSRs and Europe 2020. Finally, relevant related questions on administrative capacity are tackled in the country fiches.