Despite their crucial role in territorial development, local authorities are often seen as passive beneficiaries rather than active participants. Jean Bossuyt and Amandine Sabourin explore the limited role of local authorities in the EU’s Global Gateway strategy and provide recommendations for enhancing their role in this major EU investment plan.
Summary
Local authorities (LAs) have played a relatively limited role in the EU’s Global Gateway strategy so far, despite their crucial importance in territorial development. They are often seen as beneficiaries rather than active participants, with central authorities and financial institutions leading decision-making. The Global Gateway strategy primarily focuses on national governments and private sectors, lacking explicit recognition of LAs in its policy. There are clear opportunities for local authorities to be more involved moving forward. However, challenges remain, including lack of effective decentralisation issues, capacity limitations at the local level, and unclear connections between national and local plans that the EU will need to address.
The question of the involvement of local authorities in the Global Gateway strategy was a central topic of discussion among participating cities at the EU-funded programme ‘Partnerships for Sustainable Cities’, an innovative decentralised cooperation scheme between municipalities from Europe and the partner countries launched in 2018.
This discussion paper reflects these debates. It seeks to inform and stimulate a reflection among cities, internally within the European Commission – in DG INTPA in particular – as well as with interested external partners on the involvement of local authorities in the Global Gateway strategy. The paper highlights the importance of the active participation of LAs in this major EU investment plan and discusses concrete options by the EU to enhance this engagement in the future.