The second annual meeting of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), which brought together mayors and regional politicians from the EU and Eastern neighbouring countries, ended with an agreement on a way forward that will include public administration reform, fiscal decentralisation and regional cooperation as key priorities for action.

Members of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) met on 17 September on the second annual meeting of this group which took place in Chişinău, Moldova. Mayors and regional politicians from the EU and Eastern neighbouring countries had the opportunity to discuss the contribution of cities and regions in the development of the EU's Eastern Partnership as well as current challenges, in particular the current stage of the decentralisation process, which included the fundamental issue of fiscal decentralisation. The CORLEAP was established by the Committee of the Regions in 2011 to bring a regional and local dimension into the EU's Eastern Partnership.

The CORLEAP adopted a set of conclusions in which its members call for reinforced political and fiscal autonomy for regional and local authorities and commit to closely follow the on-going decentralisation and devolution efforts in EaP countries. CORLEAP also intends to support a training of local and regional authorities from EaP countries to improve local capacity building. In addition, CORLEAP calls for the creation of direct access to adequate financial instruments (European and national) for local and regional authorities from EaP countries and asks for a limitation on, or even the removal of, the co-financing requirements for local authorities within the EU aid programmes.

CORLEAP members also agreed on a set of three main priorities namely public administration reform, fiscal decentralisation and territorial cooperation. These will be addressed in a report that will be submitted at the next CORLEAP meeting. They also highlighted that the 2013 meeting will be an important milestone in an effort to develop a local and regional dimension of the Eastern Partnership and gain the support and attention from the policy makers in the run-up to the 3rd Eastern Partnership Summit of Heads of State and Government, to be held in Vilnius in November 2013.