IInd GENERAL MEETING OF ASSOCIATIONS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBER COUNTRIES

18 September 2008 - Palais de l’Europe - Room 5

Speech by Yavuz Mildon, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Secretary General of the Council of Europe,

Secretary General of the Congress,

Distinguished representatives of national associations,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear friends,

It is an honour for me to open this 2nd General Meeting of associations of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe member states and welcome you here, in Strasbourg, in the House of Democracy, for an exchange of views on how we can cooperate closer and better in putting together our ideas, energy and efforts to advance our common cause, which is territorial democracy. In practical terms it means – how to reinforce dialogue, links and interaction between us on matters where we need each other’s support, where we can enrich each other’s experience and add to each other’s activities.

It is symbolic that this meeting takes place only a few days after on 15 September, the world marked for the first time International Day of Democracy, declared by the UN General Assembly in November 2007. This was a special occasion to celebrate democracy and reaffirm its universal value at all levels of governance, starting from the very foundation of any democratic system – local self-government. It is also symbolic that on 1 September, we marked twenty years since the entry into force of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, this cornerstone international treaty which recognised, among other important principles, the right of local authorities to form national and international associations.

For us in the Congress, this meeting is also an opportunity to stress once again our commitment to partnership with associations of local and regional authorities, the partnership that exists since the march of local democracy began more than 50 years ago. Associations were indeed at the source of our predecessor, the European Conference of Local Authorities, which was convened in 1957 as a conference of representatives of national associations of local authorities. The importance of building this partnership with national and international associations was further reiterated in 1975, when the scope of the Conference was extended to include regional dimension and regional authorities.

So, our cooperation has a long history, passing through the years of growing power of local and regional authorities, which have become the first line of response to the wide range of issues of concern to our citizens. Today, it is no longer possible for the state to communicate with its citizens other than through the regional and local tier – nor can local and regional authorities address the national and international levels without the institutions that represent them, namely their national associations. 

This is why the niche filled by the associations is crucial to effective democratic governance, and this is why national associations are natural partners of our Congress in relaying our action, which is pan-European in its nature, at both national and grassroots level, in making sure that this action is taken on board by national governments and implemented in local and regional communities.

 

In other words, national associations of local and regional authorities are exactly the vehicle which we need to translate our proposals and recommendations into practice in the field. We see them as an interface between the Congress, representing the pan-European dimension, and grassroots level, but also between territorial communities and national authorities in your countries. National associations often play a key role in bringing our initiatives to the attention of governments, raising their awareness and convincing them of the particular importance of our projects and expediency of implementing them.

It is in recognition of this role that we organised, in February 2006 in Strasbourg, the first general meeting of the Assizes of national associations, and a follow-up meeting of their high-level representatives in September 2006 in Paris. The role of national associations as representative bodies of territorial power was also discussed at the International Conference on “Bringing Regional and Local Authorities Together For Greater Democratic Cohesion”, held in Novi Sad, Serbia, in October 2007. That Conference reaffirmed the importance of involving national associations in the decision-making process, against the background of growing direct cooperation between communities and of their increasing role in national and international affairs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In our logic, this meeting will build on the conclusions reached and proposals made at the first General Meeting, in February 2006, which identified the main areas of potential cooperation between the Congress and national associations. Among those areas were promotion of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, joint expertise of legal texts and the follow-up of Congress recommendations, monitoring of local and regional democracy, and sharing of experience and best practice between the Congress and associations. More specific proposals touched upon such issues as staff exchanges, information-sharing, institutional cooperation, and representation at regional level, to name but a few.

Of course, the proposals made at the first general meeting were geared towards the projects and initiatives existing at the time. The objective of this conference is to take stock of the practical steps that were taken over the past two years, look at ways of advancing our cooperation further, and identify other areas and projects where we should join our efforts, where we need your support for our input.

I am thinking of, for example, the new European Urban Charter, the European Charter of Regional Democracy, the European Local Democracy Week, Local Democracy Agencies, the Adriatic Euroregion and the Black Sea Euroregion – the latter will be launched at the conference in Varna, Bulgaria, on 26 September – and many other recent proposals and recommendations.

I am sure that my colleagues will speak in more detail about some of these projects, which were adopted, I should underline, after prior consultations with national associations, exactly in the spirit of cooperation which we are promoting. The bottom-line is clear: our doors are open for your participation and your involvement in formulating our proposals, but also for your backing them once they saw the light of day, pushing them through and bringing them to fruition – which could also mean in practical terms, for example, translating them and disseminating them in your national and local languages.

In our view, your involvement should go beyond consultations on Congress legal texts and even observation of elections. You should represent an “early warning system” for our monitoring activities as far as the situation of local and regional democracy in your countries is concerned, and the national avant-garde for Congress action. For this, we are offering you our expertise, our acquis and our forum, and we look forward to using your experiences, your best practices and your innovative approaches in our work.

Deciding on practical ways to achieve this is the objective of this meeting which, I am convinced, will bring our cooperation to new heights and which I wish every success.

Thank you.