Abstract
More than three decades after the entry into force of the European Charter of Local Self-government our chapter sets out to assess to what extent European cities are, in their roles as policy-makers and policy-takers, truly self-governing. Therebywe look at cities that fulfil three criteria: that they are located in a federal country in a broad sense, in a country with legal entrenchment of both the Charter and post-Lisbon EU law and that these city governments assume additional responsibilities which are elsewhere, mostly in rural areas, performed by specific umbrella entities (e.g. the Landkreise in Germany, Landbezirke in Austria and province in Italy). Section 13.2 of this chapter clarifies concepts and terminology of local self-government. These are rather controversial so that we need to explain our view on these issues. Section 13.3 presents a framework of legal standards for local self-government, derived from the Charter and, to a lesser extent, from EU law, regarding the twin roles of cities as both policy-makers and policy-takers. These European standards then form the lens through which Sect. 13.4 analyses how these roles are played by Germany’s kreisfreie Städte (“county-free cities”), Austria’s Statutarstädte (“citieswith own statute”) and Italy’s città metropolitane (“metropolitan cities”). Section 13.5 concludes by assessing the extent to which these cities can thereby be considered as self-governing local authorities.