13th Plenary session of the Congress 30 May to 1st June 2006

Speech by Giovanni Di Stasi, past President of the Congress, on his final activity report

  Strasbourg 30 May 2006

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,

First of all, I wish to congratulate you, Mr President, on your election today. You will now be heading the Congress for two years to come in a very crucial time for our continent. The European political landscape is rapidly changing, as is the role of European political institutions and relations between them. We are witnessing the growing power of territorial communities and the shift in the national/local balance. Decentralisation has become the word of the day. Against this background, you, Mr President, will have your hands full because the importance of the Congress is also growing. But you are not new to the issue, having been until now the President of the Chamber of Local Authorities, and I am sure that you will sail through your new Presidency with flying colours, steering this ship which is our Congress. I wish you every success in your new job. Once again, congratulations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the past two years, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has made substantial progress in achieving its objectives in accordance with the priorities set in November 2004 – helping to reposition the Council of Europe in the new European institutional context, promoting territorial democracy, developing transfrontier and interterritorial cooperation, contributing to solving political problems and responding to major social challenges, and strengthening relations with European and international organisations. The Congress has evolved to become a true watchdog of territorial democracy on our continent and a political partner in the dialogue with the governments concerning its reinforcement. It plays a key role in accelerating the process of the decentralisation of power towards the regional and local level, which has been recognised as an important element in the development of democracy. Today, we are well on our way of creating a Europe of territorial communities, a Europe of sustainable communities, a Europe of citizens.

We have been advancing with the setting up of associations of local authorities and their networks. In 2005, the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) was created, which brought together local authorities representing 60 million people. In South Caucasus, we set up the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) and are currently working on a similar project in Azerbaijan.

The Congress has been pursuing several projects on inter-regional cooperation, aimed at establishing Euro-regions of a new generation – Euro-regions bringing together national, regional and local authorities from both EU and non-EU member states. The first such Euro-region, the Adriatic Euro-region, was launched in February this year, and the work has begun to prepare the Black Sea Euro-region. Another important initiative – which is gaining wider and wider support, as the session of the Committee of Ministers showed less than two weeks ago – is the proposed Centre on inter-regional and transborder cooperation, to be established in St Petersburg. Its main objective will be to promote greater political, economic and social cohesion among European regions.

The Congress continued its activities to monitor the state of regional and local democracy, by adopting recommendations, having follow-up exchanges of views with government officials, and observing regional and local elections. On 21 May, the Congress delegation to observe the referendum in Montenegro included, for the first time ever, members of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, with which we signed a Cooperation Agreement in April 2005. The cooperation with the Committee was boosted by the decisions of the Warsaw Summit last year, and recently by the report on relations between the EU and the Council of Europe prepared by Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who also supported our initiatives mentioned above.

The Congress has become one of the main pillars of our Organisation and the genuine representative body of European territorial communities. Its role in promoting territorial democracy was acknowledge by the Heads of State and Government during the Warsaw Summit, and today it is actively participating in the Forum on the Future of Democracy set up by the Summit. The range of issues with which the Congress is dealing is impressive: citizens’ participation, urban security, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, integration of migrants in our cities, sustainable development of territorial communities, culture and education, history and modernity, fight against trafficking in human beings.

The Congress has been working on developing innovative approaches to respond to the changing needs of our globalising, knowledge-based society and implementing the Lisbon strategy. However, any innovations must be aimed at pursuing the same unchanging strategy – advancing democracy and improving our societies for the befit of 800 million Europeans.

The membership of our Congress will be renewed at this session. We will set new priorities for the two years ahead of us, in the light of the decisions of the Warsaw Summit, Juncker’s report and the resolutions of the Ministers responsible for territorial communities. It is certain that these new priorities will build on what has already been accomplished and will strengthen the role of the Congress in the European process.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is my last session as the President of the Congress. I am proud and honoured to have been leading this body over the past two years, and I certainly look forward to remaining its member and continuing to work with you on the numerous and complex issues on our agenda. I would like to thank the members of the old Congress for helping me with my Presidency, and to wish the new Congress much success.

Thank you.