Regional Governance in OECD Countries

Annex C. Overview of regional reforms in OECD and EU countries since 1980

Table C.1. Overview of regional reforms in OECD and EU countries since 1980

	Main regional reforms
Belgium	2001: Revision of the Constitution Special Act. Lambermont Agreement providing regions with more tax autonomy and regulatory powers. 2014: Transfer of additional responsibilities to regions (labour market policies, mobility and justice) and communities (family allowance, long-term care and healthcare); fiscal reform providing regions with more own-source tax resources.
Chile	1992: Adoption of an organic constitutional law creating a “mixed” regional government system with both deconcentrated and decentralised components, i.e. a regional executive (intendant) appointed by the President of the Republic and a regional council indirectly elected by the municipal councillors. 2009: New push towards decentralisation, especially through the constitutional reform establishing direct election by citizens of regional councillors, creating a democratically elected body to manage regional development (the first direct elections took place in 2013 and regional councillors took office on March 2014). 2017: Law No. 20.990 of January 2017 created fully self-governing regions. The first regional elections of governors took place in May 2021.
Colombia	1991: The Constitution defines the country as a unitary and decentralised republic, and affirms the principle of self‑governance and autonomy to departments and municipalities. The regional level is composed of 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá. Governors (departments) and the superior mayor (Bogotá) are directly elected. 2019: The Pact for Decentralisation strengthened the Administrative and Planning Regions (RAP), already referred to in the Constitution. The RAP is an associative scheme to promote co-operation between regions.
Costa Rica	2021: The Regional Development Law (No. 22.363) established the creation of a Regional Development Fund (FONADER), strengthened multi-level governance and citizens’ participation at the regional level through the creation of a Regional Development Observatory.
Croatia	1992: Reinstatement of counties as self-government units with a lot of autonomy. 2009: Direct election of county governors.
Czech Republic	1997: Creation of the 14 self-governing regions (Act 347/1997). However, they were recognised as autonomous entities only in 2000 with Regional Act No. 129/2000. 2000-02: Transfer of responsibilities to the new regional tier: secondary education, regional roads, economic development and planning, health. The Local Finance Act 243/2000 defines the regional financing system based on tax sharing.
Denmark	2007: Abolition of the 14 counties which were replaced by 5 new regions. Their main responsibility is healthcare (management of the hospital system). Other responsibilities are advising the municipalities on spatial planning and regional development and organising regional public transport and road subsidies, in co‑operation with the municipalities. The 15 county prefectures (state administration) were transformed into 5 regional prefectures. 2019: The political agreement to abolish the current elected five regions did not materialise with the change in government.
Finland	2019: The regionalisation project, that had been in the works since 2015 to be effective in January 2019, was abandoned in April 2019 due to political disputes that led to the resignation of the government. 2021: enactment of a reform for the creation of 21 regions across the territory (excluding the capital city of Helsinki, which will have a special status). The first county elections were held on 23 January 2022.
France	1982-83: Act I of decentralisation: the creation of self-governing regions, with responsibilities to manage spatial planning, economic development, education (high schools) and vocational training. 1986: First regional elections by direct universal suffrage. 1988: Law specifying the regional economic development functions. 2002: New transfers of responsibilities to the regions, including regional passenger rail transport. 2003-04: Act II of decentralisation: recognition of regions by the Constitution; consolidation of regional responsibilities; right to experiment with several other responsibilities, e.g. heritage protection, seaports and aerodromes, environment (air quality and regional nature reserves), EU Structural Funds. 2010: Territorial reform weakened the fiscal autonomy of the regions (loss of taxation power). 2014: Regional mergers reducing the number of regions from 26 to 17 (of which 12 in mainland France, along with Corsica and 4 overseas regions) by the Law on the Delimitation of the Regions (enacted in 2015). 2015: Act III of decentralisation (NOTRe Law): clarification and strengthening of regional responsibilities in the areas of economic development, territorial planning, environmental protection, vocational training. 2018: Regions receive a share of the value-added tax. 2021: The 3DS bill “decentralisation, differentiation, deconcentration and simplification” includes several measures aimed at strengthening regional responsibilities, for example in the health and public employment sectors.
Germany	2006: Clarification of responsibilities between the Länder and the federal government: reduction in the number of concurrent responsibilities, reduction of areas subject to Bundesrat veto; additional competencies allocated to the Länder regarding economic activities and trade, education, universities, environmental protection, crime punishment, staff management; possibility for the Länder to opt-out in six policy areas, introducing a degree of asymmetry into German federalism. 2009: New financial arrangements concerning the system of transfers; introduction of the debt brake.
Greece	2010: Kallikratis reform creates 13 full self-governing regions with new responsibilities in the areas of regional planning and development, including EU Structural Funds (transferred from the state regional administrations – prefectures). 2018: Kleisthenis reform (Law 4555/2018) touches upon various issues concerning regional governments, including the electoral system, regional councils and the allocation of responsibilities across levels of government.
Hungary	1990: Act of Local Government restored the autonomy of counties. 2011-12: Recentralisation process through the new 2012 Fundamental Law and the 2011 Cardinal Law on Local Governments. Counties lost several major competencies (healthcare including hospitals, social initiatives and secondary education) to be mainly in charge of regional and territorial development.
Ireland	2014: Abolition of the eight regional authorities (based at NUTS 3 level) by the local government reform. Their functions are transferred to three regional assemblies (established at NUTS 2 level).
Italy	1997: Bassanini Laws: implementation of the subsidiarity principle: all functions are transferred to the regions (and local authorities) except those listed in Law No. 59, which remain with the state. 2001: Constitutional reform: regions (together with the provinces and municipalities) are enshrined in the Constitution as autonomous governments and placed on the same level as the central government. 2006: Rejection by a national referendum of the constitutional reform to transform Italy into a quasi-federal county. 2009: Fiscal federalism law aimed at increasing fiscal autonomy at the regional level. 2014: Indirect impact of Law No. 56/2014 on the regional level (this law abolished the provinces and established the metropolitan cities). 2016: Rejection by referendum of the constitutional reform that aimed at clarifying the allocation of responsibilities between the central government and ordinary regions (abolition of “concurrent competencies” and recentralisation of several responsibilities, e.g. transport, labour, public finance and taxation).
Latvia	2009: Abolition of the 26 districts (self-governing entities) replaced by 5 planning regions (not as self-governing entities). 2019: publication of the “Conceptual Paper on New Administrative Territorial Division” and “Regional Policy Guidelines 2021-27”, which acknowledges the necessity of introducing a regional government level (Action 225.1 of the Government Action Plan). 2020: Law on Administrative Territories and Populated Areas.
Lithuania	2000: Creation of ten regional development councils as a collegial body within the counties. 2010: Abolition of the post of county governor and the county governor’s administration.  2020: Amendment to the Law on Regional Development. The law established regional development councils as legal entities in the country.
Mexico	1992: Devolution of basic education to the states. 1996: Devolution of healthcare to the states. 1998: Reform of the National System of Fiscal Co‑ordination. 2007: Additional powers given to the states.
Netherlands	2002: Act of “dualisation”, separating composition, functions and powers of the deliberative council and the executive. 2007-13: Decentralisation programmes transferred new responsibilities to provinces (cultural and archaeology heritage, spatial planning, economic development, provincial archives, nature policy and protection of threatened species, innovation policy). 2014: Rejection by the parliament of a reform abolishing the provinces.
Norway	2002: Recentralisation of the responsibility for hospitals from the counties to the central government in the framework of the national healthcare reform. 2003: New tasks granted to counties: spatial planning, regional development and innovation policy. 2010: New tasks granted to counties: public roads, cultural activities, management of marine resources, operation of vocational schools and environmental protection. 2020: Abolition of the 18 counties which were replaced by 11 larger regions, with new tasks such as the administration of national road networks. Other tasks and instruments will be allocated so that they become “stronger regional community developers”: cultural heritage protection, integration (immigrants), broadband development, fishing ports, research and innovation, business development, agriculture and forestry, climate and environment, integration (immigrants), public health.
Poland	1999: Creation of 16 self-governing regions (together with that of the intermediate level of counties), with responsibilities for tasks of “regional importance” (determined by law), mainly regional economic development, regional roads, spatial development but also healthcare, higher education and labour market policies. 2007: Increased role of regions in regional policy, being fully responsible for 25% of EU Cohesion Funds (currently almost 60%). 2009: New tasks transferred to regions: regional rail transport, waste and water management, and environmental protection.
Portugal	Regions are enshrined in the 1976 Constitution but were not created. Only the islands of Azores and Madeira were granted special status as autonomous regions. 1998: Rejection by referendum of the draft bill creating eight self-governing regions. Since then, different scenarios for regionalisation have been discussed.
Romania	Current counties, in existence since the 15th century, were established in 1968. They have been reinforced by several decentralisation processes after the 1991 Constitution: 2001 Local Public Administration Act; 2006 Framework Law on Decentralisation. 1998: Creation of eight development regions at NUTS 2 level, in parallel to the counties, to co‑ordinate regional development, but they do not have an administrative status. 2008: Direct election of the president of the county councils. A debate on creating larger regions has been ongoing since the end of the 1990s.
Slovak Republic	2001: Creation of eight self-governing regions (also referred to as higher territorial units), with responsibilities for secondary, professional and vocational education; social welfare; regional roads; public transport; regional economic development; and territorial planning. 2003-06: Decentralisation process confirmed by the Project of Further Decentralisation of Public Government. 2005: Reform of the regional government fiscal framework (Act on Local Financing).
Slovenia	1990-2000s: Discussions on regionalisation reforms (the Constitution provides for the establishment of self-governing regions by law). Several attempts and bills were prepared but never materialised. 2008: Rejection by referendum of the draft bill creating 13 regions; however, voter turnout was low (10.9%). 2009: Appointment by the prime minister of a Strategic Council for Regionalisation and Decentralisation; preparation of a new bill creating six regions, but the project was abandoned in 2011 due to disagreements about the number, size, competencies and financing of the regions.
Spain	2000: Decentralisation of education to autonomous communities. 2002: Decentralisation of health to autonomous communities. 2006: Reform of autonomous statutes depending on autonomous communities. 2009: Reform of the financing of autonomous communities (Law 22/2009).
Sweden	1997-2007: Experimentation of asymmetric regionalisation. No single model of regionalisation imposed but instead different options available in terms of political representation (directly and indirectly elected) and responsibilities. 2007: Report of the Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities, promoting the extension of the “pilot region” model providing counties with more responsibilities. Since 2007, Sweden has further extended the transfer of regional development competencies to county councils. 2017: Attempt to reduce the number of counties from 21 to 6, which ultimately failed. 2019: End of the gradual, experimental and asymmetric regionalisation process in Sweden carried out since 1997. All counties have the same governance structure (directly elected councils), including Gotland Island, a municipality with county responsibilities. There are now called “regions”.
Türkiye	2005: Transformation of the 81 special provincial administrations (SPAs) into self-governing entities, with more powers. However, a dual decentralised/deconcentrated system remains in place, as provincial governors still have a major role as the head of the SPAs’ executive committee. 200: the first Regional Development Agencies were established in TR31 (İzmir) and TR62 (Adana, Mersin) NUTS II regions. As of 2008 and 2009, remaining 24 Development Agencies have been officially established and Development Agencies were activated in all 26 NUTS-2 regions 2012: The boundaries of metropolitan municipalities were expanded to their corresponding provincial boundaries and the number of metropolitan municipalities was expanding from 16 to 30.
United Kingdom	1998: Devolution process creating three devolved nations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales with a directly elected “national assembly”/parliament and their own government and major competencies transferred to them. It created an asymmetric decentralisation across devolved nations (they do not have the same powers) and with England (no regional governments). 2004: Regionalisation process in England suspended in 2004 following the rejection of a referendum held in the North East England. 2007: Devolution restored in Northern Ireland. 2010: Extension of the powers of the Welsh Assembly after the 2010 referendum. 2012: Extension of the powers of the Scottish Parliament by the Scotland Act 2012 (possibility to raise own taxes and introduction of a range of measures to strengthen the devolved administration in Scotland). 2017: Devolution of further powers to the Welsh government (Wales Act 2017). 2021: The levelling-up agenda may have implications on the regionalisation process.

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2019[20]); OECD/UCLG (2019[21]; forthcoming[22]).