05/11/2026 On 28 October 2026, LORAI partners gathered at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for a technical meeting hosted by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
The meeting brought together project partners to exchange on the findings of recent focus groups organised by Local Government Associations and to discuss the next steps in developing the LORAI Monitoring Framework.
During the meeting, Associations shared feedback from these discussions held with representatives of local and regional authorities in their respective economies. The focus groups explored local governments’ involvement in the implementation and monitoring of Reform Agendas, highlighting both common challenges and economy-specific issues.
As highlighted by representatives of Associations, discussions of the focus groups pointed to the limited involvement of local authorities in many areas of the Reform Agendas. Among the challenges raised were:
– identifying indicators relevant to the local level
– accessing the necessary data from other institutions
– addressing emerging financial needs at municipal level.
The consultations also helped identify potential indicators reflecting local government priorities, including in areas such as public administration, digitalisation and financing.
NALAS presented the LORAI Monitoring Framework, based on two types of indicators identified as part of the baseline study carried out at the beginning of the project.
These indicators are split into two categories: on the one hand, regional common indicators, which analyse, at the regional level, information such as the percentage of official Reform Agenda steps with an impact on local governments or the total approved amount (EUR) of public investment and financial support for local government implementation of Reform Agenda steps.
On the other hand, economy-specific indicators will analyse the Reform Agenda aspects most relevant to local authorities in each economy, ranging from energy efficiency renovation to digital services and preschool enrolment.
Using this, NALAS also outlined the development of the LORAI Dashboard, which will provide an evidence base for monitoring Reform Agenda implementation from the local government perspective. The dashboard will bring together the indicators, supported by data collected across the participating economies.
Through this work, LORAI aims to strengthen the role of local authorities in reform implementation and monitoring, ensuring that local perspectives and needs are better reflected in regional policy dialogue. Another objective is also to position local authorities as strategic partners, involved from the policy design stage in the development of future similar mechanisms.
LORAI – Local Observatory on Reform Agendas Implementation is a joint EU and Council of Europe programme, implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in partnership with NALAS, Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and seven NALAS member associations:
- Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Association of Municipalities and Towns of the Republic of Srpska
- Association of Kosovo Municipalities
- Union of Municipalities of Montenegro
- Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Serbia
- National Association of Municipalities of Albania
- Association of the Units of Local Self-Government of the Republic of North Macedonia
