As part of the European Semester and the monitoring of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Member States (MS) submit their annual National Reform Programmes (NRP), which specify the progress made and action to be undertaken in areas such as employment, research, innovation, energy or social inclusion in order to meet the goals and targets set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy.

This study follows the analysis of the role played by Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) in the first round of National Reform Programme (NRP) submissions in 2011. The 2012 study is based on the same set of questions and evaluation protocol used in 2011. Three additional assessment questions were added to reflect the dynamic nature of Europe's economic and policy landscape, including the pressing need to promote sustainable job growth and the fiscal consolidation of the public sector.