EU's Regional and Local Barometer warns: €180 billion COVID gap will hit public services

CoR President Tzitzikostas warns €180 billion gap hole in local finances and criticises national governments' failure to consult local governments in investment plans

The Regional and Local Barometer – produced by the European Committee of the Regions – published today has warned that the 's recovery is being undermined by a failure by national capitals to consult cities and regions on -funded emergency recovery plans. The prospect of funds not being directed where cities and regions feel they are most needed also risks exacerbating problems posed by an €180 billion funding gap between spending and revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second annual report , which includes one of the largest -wide opinion polls of local and regional governments ever conducted - also highlights widening social and economic inequalities between regions within the same country and across the , including a rural-urban digital divide that is undermining the 's ambitions for a green and digital economic transition.

Presenting the report, Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EL/EPP), President of the European Committee of the Regions and elected governor of the Region of Central Macedonia in Greece, said: ''Our Regional and Local Barometer measures the impact of the pandemic on our regions, cities and villages so that all levels of governance – , national, regional and local - can take concrete action to address our people's problems. Too often Europe is only associated with its 27 Member States. The is much richer than that: it is over 300 regions, 90.000 municipalities and 1,1 million regionally and locally elected politicians representing over 400 million people. Our Barometer offers a new perspective on the state of the , better taking into account its diversity, complexity and richness''.

Below some of the key findings of the Local and Regional Barometer:

The Barometer offers a snapshot of the impact of the social, economic and health crisis on 's regions and cities. Its facts and findings are complemented by a public-opinion poll of local and regional politicians in the 27 Member States. The poll, commissioned by the European Committee of the Regions and conducted by IPSOS, probes these politicians' views on the quality of relationship between sub-national governments and national governments and the , the state of democracy in the , and their agenda for progress.

The Annual Regional and Local Barometer (#RegionalBarometer) is supplemented by a political resolution by the 329 members of the European Committee of the Regions, the 's political assembly of local and regional governments.

Findings of the Annual Regional and Local Barometer: [links to be updated]