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The furthering of decentralisation in Europe has brought about a great deal of institutional reorganisation over the past years. Due to the extension of competences transferred by central administration and growing needs for local public services, the public expenditure of the 89,250 infra-national European entities has steadily increased. Everywhere in Europe, the territorial public sector has become the main actor in public investment, representing nearly 70 % of the total. To back up these trends, financial reforms have been introduced to enable local and regional authorities to diversify and increase their income from taxes. This decentralisation has not upset the main financial equilibriums of the infra-national sector: on the whole, debts and local public deficits have remained under control.