Public Services Management: Local government's affair with Europe: As Conservative commitment wobbles, Liza Donaldson reports on the grass-roots rush into cross-channel relations

AS EURO-LOVERS go, no part of government, it seems, is more passionate than the municipal sector. Outdoing the Prime Minister - who has said he is 'a European more in my head than in my heart' - local government is embracing Europe with both, according to a report entitled: 'The Europeanisation of British Local Government: New Management Strategies.'

This report concludes: 'There is a growing enthusiasm about the European Community (now European Union) from politicians and officers who realise that the EU is not just about getting funds, but a way of developing new projects . . . For some, EU involvement can be a way of transcending conflicts and domestic preoccupations of the 1980s British local government. Most of all, EU projects and networking can be exciting and a source of local innovation, which is what local government should be about.'

Its author, Peter John of Keele University, commissioned by the Local Government Management Board, identifies a continuum of involvement by councils. They may start with minimal interest, simply responding to EC directives and regulations, but then get hooked into European funding, moving on to become engrossed in wider international networking, graduating to being a fully fledged Europeanised authority with policy- making attuned to the EU.

Dr John cites evidence that among the more active larger councils nearly three quarters of counties and cities admitted they wanted closer ties with Europe last year. For local government as a whole, about a third of councils sought closer links with Europe. He adds that the first sign of an authority becoming more Europe orientated is appointment of a Euro officer. There are now 350 of these, employed by 285 councils out of a total of 541 authorities.

In Brussels itself, 16 local authority offices have been set up at a cost of pounds 50,000 to pounds 100,000 a year. At least half are joint ventures.

Strathclyde's former leader Charles Gray concedes that the Scottish authority's involvement was, initially, purely economic - to secure Euro-gold. The authority, largest in the land, has been outstandingly successful in this field. With the objective of increasing employment, it won structural funding: pounds 300m in regional money and pounds 100 million in social funds. Last year the region had a breakthrough in persuading the Eurocrats to grant Objective One status for structural funds to Arran, the Cumbraes, Argyle and Bute. The only other areas to qualify were the Highlands and Islands, Northern Ireland and Merseyside.

The authority, which appointed its first official in Brussels in 1984, has shifted onto top Euro-gear by integrating European issues into its policy making process.

Mr Gray, who is also chairman of the Local Government International Bureau, singled out the creation of the Committee of Regions under the Maastricht treaty as vital to councils and their communities. Composed of 189 elected regional or local members, it marks the first recognition of local government in the structures of the European Union. Launched this spring, it will be consulted mainly by the European Commission, which proposes EU measures, and the Council of Ministers, which decides whether to put them into law. Mr Gray believes its creation, plus the Maastricht review in 1996, could boost the authority of UK councils weakened by centralisation and re-organisation of local government.

Not all authorities have made the strides of Birmingham council as a founder member of the Eurocities network or have established the sort of links Kent county council has in creating a Transmanche Euro region with Nord-Pas de Calais and three Belgian regions. Some are moving fast to catch up, however. Essex and East Sussex have reached a critical phase in their bids for cross border funding, attempting to win the arguments that the sea is equivalent to a land boundary. They have teamed up, respectively, with Picardy and Region Haute Normandie in France.

In London, despite the lack of a central local authority, councils have played a key role in winning recognition under regional funds for an area covering one million people to be an Objective Two area - one seriously affected by industrial decline with high unemployment. Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Haringey, Enfield and Waltham Forest are set to benefit to the tune of pounds 100m for transport links, industrial sites and jobs for local people.

Liverpool council along with Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley and Sefton, plus partners from the private, voluntary and government sectors, are awaiting the go-ahead to inject pounds 1.5m to halt the decline of Merseyside, recognised as Objective One status. Cornwall and Devon have won Objective Two status for Plymouth and an Extension 5B Rural Area status that is expected to bring pounds 164m to the region. Hertfordshire, which won pounds 790,000 to cope with defence cuts and closure of a Rolls-Royce helicopter engine factory, contends that the funding helped turn its attention outwards to community partnerships and spurred its participation in the increasingly competitive Euro-lobbying.

Even district councils, the smallest units above parishes, are waking up to Euro opportunities. An unpublished survey by the Association of District Councils shows 43 per cent have or are considering establishing a European strategy. Roger Chater, the group's deputy secretary, said: 'In the past, the funding issues dominated. But people are now seeing the European Union more as a relevant tier of government. . .'

Nottingham, in a consortium with seven other councils, is perhaps the best example among districts. The group opened a Brussels office in October, providing use of it free to businesses, and has gained recognition as an Objective Two area, worth funds of pounds 100,000. In addition it networked among the Eurocities to link companies in the region with like minded companies abroad.

Observers say that while the Tories may often be out on a limb over Europe, local government is frequently more in tune with the idea of making the EU relationship deeper than simply a free market. At a local level, Dr John said, the Conservatives have been more pro-Europe than many of their national level counterparts. 'It will be interesting to see whether local government's pro-European enthusiasm percolates upwards,' he added.

(Photograph omitted)