Speech by Mr Giovanni Di Stasi
President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to address you today, not only as a politician representing the Council of Europe – the oldest and largest political organisation in Europe – but also as a European representing my continent and the values for which it stands – the continent known here as the Old World.
I would like to start my presentation by quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, a noble Frenchman who was fascinated with the American democratic model and who wrote in his landmark book “Democracy in America” in the 19th century: “Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people […] I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, and thought that I discerned there something analogous to the spectacle which the New World presented to me. I observed that equality of condition, though it has not there reached the extreme limit which it seems to have attained in the United States, is constantly approaching it; and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe.”
It is interesting to see Alexis de Tocqueville describing American democracy as an example for Europe – the continent which gave the world the first democratic models of ancient Greece and Rome but whose democratic development was diverted and interrupted by centuries of despotism and feudal fighting. This year marks the 200th anniversary since the birth of Alexis de Tocqueville, and anniversaries are always a good occasion to take stock of the past achievements – or failures – and to reflect upon the future. I would also like to seize this occasion to reflect upon European democracy and the future of democratic development in general. When speaking about European democracy, I will be referring to democracy in Wider Europe, not limited to the European Union of 25 countries but embodied in the Council of Europe of 46 member states, representing almost the entire continent – with the sole and regrettable exception of Belarus.
For us in the Council of Europe, Europe is not only an economic union but first and foremost the community of like-minded nations sharing the common values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law and stretching – geographically – from Reykjavik to Vladivostok, spanning 14 time zones and home to 800 million people.
The European democratic model which we can observe today, of course, did not appear overnight, nor is it set in stone. It is the result of decades of concerted efforts and experimentation, and it is constantly evolving and adapting itself to new realities of life and changing needs and demands of our citizens. It is natural because democracy is not a status quo but a process, not an achievement in itself but – and I quote again Alexis de Tocqueville – “the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency that is to be found in history.”
Let us look back at the origins of today’s Europe, the Europe born out of the ashes of the Second World War. In his famous speech of 1946, Winston Churchill, one of the founding fathers of modern Europe, formulated his vision of the European future, calling for the restoration of the European family in order to avoid destruction and despair which led to the enormous losses during the War. “We must create an order that will make possible life in peace, safety, and freedom,” he said. “We must establish something like the United States of Europe. Only then can hundreds of millions of hard-working people regain the common joys and hopes that make life worth living.”
His words were echoed by another architect of the European project, Jean Monnet:
“In Europe, there will never be peace, as long as European countries are constituted on the basis of national sovereignty. European countries are too small to provide their citizens with the necessary wealth and social development. Therefore, European countries must join into a federation.”
The Council of Europe, created in May 1949, was exactly the result of this post-war philosophy which can be encapsulated in two words: Never Again. Never Again war, Never Again death camps, Never Again Nazism and superiority of one nation over another. The main goal of our Organisation, set out in its Statute, is to achieve greater unity between its members on the basis of the shared values of pluralist democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law, and to promote a European cultural identity whilst preserving diversity and maintaining social cohesion.
I should like to stress the social cohesion and social development aspect which has been, from the very outset, a dominant feature of the European politics and the European democratic model. Much as Americans, we believe that the State – the government – is instituted to protect human rights of the citizens, as is laid down in the US Declaration of Independence. However, our concept of human rights – to which I will return later – has evolved to include increasingly social and economic rights as essential rights of citizens, in addition to civil and political ones. We hold that the government has the social responsibility vis-à-vis the citizens and that everything should not be left to the private sector alone – nor do we believe that the government alone can do everything. Striking the right balance between the public and private sector is a complex issue, and its complexity is reflected in the diversity of political opinion in Europe – as evident from the number of political parties which sometimes befuddles the Americans used to having essentially two parties alternating in power.
The importance of social cohesion has been recently reaffirmed once again at the Summit of the Council of Europe Heads of State and Government, whish was held in Warsaw, Poland, in May this year. The Action Plan adopted by the Summit speaks about building a more humane and inclusive Europe – a Europe of Inclusion, the continent which provides a fair and equal treatment to everybody on its soil, where everybody is equally included in the democratic process, and where the rights of everyone are equally protected.
The Council of Europe, which is often referred to as “the human rights watchdog”, has a key role to play in attaining this goal. After its establishment in 1949, our Organisation started out by setting up a human rights protection system unique in the world, centered on the European Court of Human Rights – the Court which makes sure that the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Council of Europe’s cornerstone legal instrument, the European Convention on Human Rights, are protected in all its member states. Everyone on European soil has the right to complain to the European Court of Human Rights against the abuses of the national governments (and here I must repeat again, with the regrettable exception of the government of Belarus), and in a large number of cases the European Court decides in favour of the individual – often contrary to the decision of the national supreme courts.
The European Court also plays an important role in developing the concept of human rights through its case-law – alongside the evolving thinking of European governments and parliaments. As I said earlier, our understanding of human rights is constantly expanding, reflecting the democratic development on our continent – expanding to include the rights of children, the rights of migrant workers, the rights of foreign residents – and also the rights to health care, housing or safe environment. The European Convention on Human Rights has now 14 additional protocols to it, specifying particular rights and enhancing their protection.
I would like to refer again to the US Declaration of Independence which underlined the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In Europe, we are convinced that the government has a duty to create an environment allowing the pursuit of happiness, an enabling environment – hence our emphasis on social and economic rights which I have just mentioned. We are convinced that the right of an individual to pursue happiness will be infringed unless the government creates an adequate social and economic environment conducive to such pursuit. This is why today we are talking about the need to develop and ensure social economy – an economy driven by the input of citizens and not – not only – of big corporations, an economy in which the governments provide for a fair trade and a fair distribution of wealth.
We also draw a distinction between the absolute human rights – which cannot be restricted under any circumstances – and non-absolute rights which can be subject to certain restrictions under the law. In this respect, let me give you an example which illustrates in particular the difference between the American and European approach. The Europeans consider the right to life as an absolute right – not only because a judicial error in a death penalty case is irreversible, but first and foremost because of the absolute value of human life which cannot be taken away by the governmental machine. We are proud to declare that the entire Europe has become a de facto death penalty-free zone, with no executions carried out even in the two countries (Russia and Belarus) which have not formally abolished the capital punishment. This is the reason for our repeated calls on the US government, on America as a civilised nation which enjoys an observer status in the Council of Europe, to put an end to this barbaric practice.
On the contrary, America sees the right to free speech as an absolute right which cannot be restricted – an opinion which is not shared by Europeans who put restrictions on hate speech, fuelling racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, or instigating terrorist acts. This is especially important in the light of the fight against terrorism – a top priority for our Organisation – and was reflected in the recent Convention on the prevention of terrorism, which was adopted by the Council of Europe in May this year.
This Convention was adopted together with two other Council of Europe conventions – on the financing of terrorism and on trafficking in human beings – which represent our Organisation’s responses to only some challenges facing European democracy today. The Council of Europe, as a truly pan-European forum, is perfectly placed to deal with these challenges across the continent. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain and Communist regimes in central and eastern Europe, it succeeded in uniting the continent under one democratic roof, fostering its values in new democracies and advancing democratic development. After five and a half decades of its existence, the Council of Europe has nearly reached the pan-European dimension for which it was designed.
Of course, central and eastern European member states are still facing enormous difficulties, which is only natural – the Communist regimes fell only 15 years ago, a very short period of time for history. Mentality does not change overnight after decades of totalitarianism. What is important is that now we have the opportunity to foster democratic values on the entire continent. The future of democracy lies in unity, not only the unity of nations and national governments, but also in the unity and complementarity of all actors in society – of all levels of government, including supranational, national, regional and local, of the public and private sectors, civil society, and individual citizens.
As the different experiences in western and eastern parts of Europe continue to converge, we are discovering the need for a fundamental change in relations of power, the need to transform the central power into a network of powers, a network of “sustainable communities”, and here local democracy has a key role to play.
Local democracy and sustainable development go hand in hand, and local democracy is also the first democratic experience for our citizens. It comes as no surprise that local and regional elected representatives are among the most popular politicians in the eyes of the public. Territorial communities also take on a growing importance in the economic and social development, as our national borders disappear and economic competition shifts from the national to inter-territorial level, making possible, for example, the creation of Euro-regions – entities not bound by national frontiers. Today we are talking about creating the Adriatic Euro-region, the Black Sea and Baltic Sea Euro-regions.
The Council of Europe, and more particularly its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of which I am the President has an important mission in this process, in the process of European enlargement. Our action is not limited to the countries of the European Union. We have mounted activities in South-East Europe, especially west Balkans, to bring back together what was torn apart by the recent spate of wars there. We are advancing in the region of South Caucasus. Our work is bearing fruit in Russia and Ukraine undergoing democratic transformation.
For us in the Congress, there is no modern democracy without strong and vibrant democracy at local level, with a clear division of competences between municipalities, regions and the central power. It is at this level where economic and social development is happening today. It is also the first line of defence of human rights. The rising force of the civil society and its impact on the citizens’ engagement in democratic processes is also best felt at the local and regional level.
Promoting local democracy and territorial cooperation across Europe are exactly the main goals of the Congress, based on the principle of subsidiarity. This principle stipulates that public services and good governance are best delivered at the level closest to the citizen, and it is also at this level where the democratic process begins. However, it is also at this level where public disenchantment with democratic institutions and loss of confidence in politicians commence. Restoring public trust in the functioning of democracy, empowering our citizens by enhancing their participation in the democratic decision-making are the main challenges of today. This was reaffirmed once again by the first meeting of the European Forum on the Future of Democracy convened two weeks ago in Warsaw.
We in Europe have traveled a long way since Alexis de Tocqueville, and this journey within what he called “the empire of democracy” will never end. Europe and America are together on this trip as two pillars of what must become a new world order of responsible citizens practicing the culture of participatory democracy, respect for human rights of everyone and the rule of law, a world where nobody feels excluded. This is our European Dream and this is the vision which Alexis de Tocqueville revealed to Europe in the 19th century.
Thank you.