IIIrd European Conference of Local Authorities for Peace in the Middle East
Venice, Italy, 25-27 September 2008
Speech by Ian Micallef, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe
Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honour and a pleasure for me to be here to day and address this Conference on the efforts of local authorities to build peace in the Middle East. It is an honour because I see my invitation to speak as the recognition of the role played by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which I represent as President of its Chamber of Local Authorities, in contributing to our common goal, which is peaceful development in the Middle East.
It is a pleasure because it gives me an opportunity to welcome here and to have discussions with so many partners of the Congress in these efforts, who are also partners of the this Conference –
the Municipal Alliance for Peace in the Middle East, led by former Mayor of The Hague Wim Deetman who is a good friend of the Congress;
the Union of Local Authorities in Israel, ULAI, and the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities, APLA, which both have observer status with the Congress;
the Network of Decentralised Cooperation for Palestine and United Cities France, with which we had close interaction especially in observing local elections in the Palestinian Territories.
Not to mention, of course, our long-standing and close partners, such as the EU Committee of the Regions and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, and our most recent collaborator, the UCLG Committee on City Diplomacy.
It is not surprising that this Conference brought all of us together, because we all are driven by the same, very natural and very human desire – to make sure that our communities, that all communities live in peace, that people could attend to their lives focusing on real issues that matter – their families, their work, their well-being.
The theme of this Conference is especially close to my heart because it is my firm conviction that peace begins in local communities, and that local communities are interdependent – especially today, in the era of globalisation, and especially in the broad Euro-Mediterranean region, including both Europe and its northern Mediterranean rim and the Middle East and the southern rim of the Mediterranean Sea.
The histories of these communities, of Mediterranean cities and provinces are intertwined, rich in exchanges between people from both shores, migrating in search of a new life, travelling deeper into the unknown, seafaring in a quest for new discoveries. Over centuries, these exchanges created what I call “cultural unity” within the Euro-Mediterranean region, a perfect platform for intercultural and interreligious dialogue between our communities at local and regional level, which would lead to dialogue at national and international level for the sake of establishing peace and stability and promoting democratic development in the basin.
I grew up on an island, Malta, which in many historical and geographical respects is at the crossroads of this rich Mediterranean diversity. When I am in Palestine I hear words we use in Malta, and when I am in Italy too! The fact that my country is a stepping stone between two shores of the same sea only strengthens my conviction that beyond this Euro-Mediterranean diversity there is a clear foundation for unity – which is also reflected in the initiative of the French Presidency of the European Union, named by French President Nicolas Sarkozy “the Union for the Mediterranean”.
This project illustrates the growing conviction in Europe that European construction cannot be achieved without the Mediterranean. This is why when talking about efforts of local authorities for peace in the Middle East, I would like to look at our peace efforts in a broader region, the entire southern rim of the Mediterranean. Our Congress in particular is well aware of the growing need for synergies and common action in the Euro-Mediterranean space, which is of increasing importance for peace, stability and development of this region. Such action is required from both northern and southern rims of the basin, involving all actors at intergovernmental, parliamentarian, local and regional level, as well as civil society and NGOs.
What we are witnessing today in Euro-Mediterranean relations can be described as the process of rapprochement, which is gaining momentum and will be shaping our policies for the future. This process is taking place against the background of continuing European integration, which necessarily has to face – and deal with – old prejudices and tensions, also an integral part of our common history. The war between Russia and Georgia, both member states of the Council of Europe, which brought back the memories of the not-so-distant Balkan wars, was a stark reminder that peace can never be taken for granted, not even within the geographical European space. It highlighted even more the need to redouble our efforts across this entire vast space, involving to a greater extent our closest neighbours to the south. We must engage associations of local authorities of the southern rim where they exist, give them a helping hand and assist them in achieving their goals.
We are not new to the issue, having been involved in so-called “Euro-Med” activities for a long time. As an example, I should mention the establishment of the Euro-Med Parliamentary Assembly, the EMPA, modelled on the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, or the idea, which we in the Congress has been advocating along with other partners, of setting up a permanent structure for local authorities, an assembly which could be modelled on the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and in which the Congress could represent the European part.
In this context, I am pleased to announce to you that we are intending to launch a new “Cities and Provinces: Euro-Mediterranean Working Group”, to give political focus and impetus to our activities aimed at developing local democracy in the Mediterranean basin, including the Middle East.
The new Working Group will build upon the past and current action of the Congress, using also its unique position as a pan-European forum which offers a platform for cooperation between more than 200,000 territorial communities on our continent and beyond. For example, both the Union of Local Authorities in Israel (ULAI) and the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA) have observer status with our Congress, which creates a potential for trilateral cooperation, especially given the fact that, for reasons beyond their control, these organisations often have difficulties meeting or carrying out joint activities on the ground. We should explore this potential more for projects involving Israeli and Palestinian towns.
In this context, the Congress, in cooperation with our partners, observed the 2nd and 4th phases of local elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2005, and held a round table, during its Autumn Session in Moscow in November 2006, on how European towns could support their counterparts in the Middle East. This issue was raised again during the Congress Plenary Session in May 2007.
The Congress also gave a new boost to the dialogue between European and Arab cities. In February this year, we organised the 3rd Euro-Arab Cities Summit, which brought together mayors of large European and Arab municipalities. The Forum decided to meet at regular intervals and set up a Steering Group to keep this dialogue going, also through our cooperation with Arab Towns Organisations. We are currently working to increase our cooperation with Morocco, having been instrumental in creating the National Association of Local Authorities of that country. Another important area of the Congress activities is action to foster interreligious and intercultural dialogue in local communities, which takes on a particular importance in the Middle East; this action is based on the twelve principles of promoting this dialogue at local level, developed by the Congress.
I should also mention our active involvement in City Diplomacy, this new political orientation of municipalities which we see as a tool of local authorities for conflict prevention and resolution. The Congress prepared the world’s first report on the subject, adopted in March this year, and took part in the first International Conference on City Diplomacy, organised in The Hague this June. In fact, the Conference invited the Congress to elaborate a Charter on City Diplomacy, a new project on which we have just embarked.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Almost two years ago, in the city of Eilat, in Israel, I addressed the conference on the role of local authorities in peace initiatives. My intervention came just one day after a terrorist attack in that city, long seen as a safe haven in the troubled waters of the Middle East.
I said back then, and I reiterate it today, that peace is the cause of people of good will, and we cannot let peace be held hostage by extremists of all kinds – we must distance this cause from criminals, starting from the grassroots level. Peace is only effective when it begins at the grassroots level, at the level of territorial communities, both local and regional, at the level of every individual, every family. There can be no lasting peace without a genuine culture of peace permeating all levels of society – a culture based on tolerance for each other’s differences, acceptance of diversity, and respect for another person’s opinion. Without it, the only thing we can achieve is a truce, an armistice, a pause before a new conflict which is more often than not used to regroup and rebuild the forces.
We in the Congress see local authorities as having a crucial role to play in spreading the values which constitute the culture of peace at the level closest to the citizen, not least through exchanges between our citizens. This is why the Congress has been actively promoting cross-border cooperation between cities and regions, which very often helps to air frustration and defuse potential conflicts, and which certainly contributes to the development and well-being of our communities – development that goes hand in hand with peace.
It was Martin Luther King Junior who once said: “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
It took Europeans centuries of wars, strife and division, culminating in the horrors of the Second World War, to realise this truth. But, having secured, to a large extent, democratic and peaceful development on the European continent, we see it as our task and duty to share our experience and spread the culture of peace beyond Europe, first and foremost to our immediate neighbours on the southern rim of the Mediterranean, including the Middle East.
We would like to share our experience and inspire similar action to ensure that local democracy, without which there is no democracy at all, is thriving across the entire Mediterranean space, for the benefit of our citizens and for the sake of peace. The road to peace, stability, prosperity and democracy can be bumpy and treacherous. But this is the road which has to be travelled, and which is worth travelling.
Let us go further bearing in mind the words of Martin Luther King Junior – that peace is not only a goal, but also a means. It is with this spirit that peace will be won.