Local politicians of the EU and the future of Europe
The Flash Eurobarometer survey ‘Local politicians of the EU and the future of Europe’, conducted by Ipsos' European Public Affairs and commissioned by the European Committee of the Regions, the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives, is the first ever survey targeting all local elected politicians in the EU. In the 27 Member States of the EU, there are more than one million politicians elected at the subnational level, including in federal states, regions, provinces, departments, municipalities, etc.
The survey was conducted via computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI). Local politicians were invited using email invitations. Ipsos' European Public Affairs collected the email addresses online, from publicly available sources; more than 20,000 email addresses were collected. Fieldwork took place between 21 July and 9 September 2021 during which close to 3 300 interviews were completed across the 27 countries.
The survey looks into how local and regional representatives see their relationship with European and national policymakers, what topics they would prioritise at the EU level, and how aware they are of EU-wide initiatives and EU funding opportunities.
The survey findings show that local elected politicians would like to get engaged more in policy-making at both the EU and national level, and tend to find they currently lack influence at these levels of government.
- 54% of respondents think it is "very important" to increase the influence of regions and local authorities on national policymaking.
- 46% of respondents think it is "very important" to increase the influence of regions and local authorities on EU policymaking.
Especially EU climate and environment policy is subject local elected politicians would like to have more leverage over.
- 59% want local and regional authorities to have more influence on EU climate and environment policies.
