XVI Economic Forum on European Challenges: The Question of Europe's Identity, September 6-9, 2006, Krynica Zdrój, Poland

Seminar on the “Future of Russian Federalism” Organised by the Kazan Institute of Federalism

Speech by Giovanni Di Stasi, Past President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

6 September 2006

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour to be addressing you on behalf of the Congress of the Council of Europe in my capacity as past-President of this pan-European assembly representing some 200,000 European local and regional communities in the 46 Council of Europe member states.

The Council of Europe core values are the promotion and safeguarding of the fundamental principles of pluralistic democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The reinforcement of local and regional self-government is crucial to effective and sustainable democracies.

The Russian Federation is among the most important member states of the Council of Europe, capable of providing a substantial contribution to the promotion of these core values.

The future of federalism in Russia is not only fundamental for the country itself but also for our entire continent. It has been one my main priorities during my mandate as President of the Congress and it should continue to be the case in the future.

The size of the country, its history, its territorial composition and its remarkable diversity create excellent conditions for establishing and promoting local and regional self-government. Russia is one of those countries expected to provide guidance to and good practices for others.

The Congress follows the situation of local and regional democracy in each of our member States on the basis of clear and shared standards deriving mainly from the European Charter of Local Self Government ; a fundamental instrument of the Council of Europe ratified by almost all Council of Europe member States, including Russia (in 1998).

In our monitoring, performed by our Congress, there are not some countries that give lessons to other countries. The situation of local and regional democracies is evaluated in all of them. Furthermore, we all share views and provide recommendations for all countries on an equal footing, with a European perspective to promote further unity between our communities.

There have been several reports of the Congress since 1995 dealing with the federalism in Russia. The last report was prepared in 2004, when the Congress adopted its Recommendation 143 (2004)1 and Resolution 171 (2004) on local and regional democracy in the Russian Federation.

I do not intend to present you these texts now. I do not have the possibility – in only 5 minutes - to comment on them, but I would like to underline that, at that time, the Congress gave its support to the reform undertaken under the political supervision of the Presidential Administration and welcomed the two new laws on organisation of powers in the Constituent Entities (Federal Law N°184) and on local self-government (Federal Law N°131) enacted accordingly in 2003 and 2004.

This new legislation provided for a clearer distribution of powers between different levels of public authorities, introduced a new territorial scheme for local authorities as well as a number of novelties with regard to institutional framework of local and regional authorities. The new legislation introduced procedures for dismissing local and regional chief executives following a court decision. New legislation was meant to start a new era of local self-government and federalism in Russia.

At the same time, the Congress recommended to the federal authorities, inter alia, to pay particular attention to the effective implementation of the new legislation which depends greatly on the Constituent Entities’ actual resources and on the arrangements which will have to be set up for financial equalisation between the Constituent Entities.

Few months later, after the Beslan tragedy, I made a public statement in December 2004 on the law amending the election of regional executives in Russia, in which I regretted that the new regulations on the appointment of the governors of the then 89 Constituent Entities aimed at ensuring a single vertical structure of executive authority by virtue of candidatures proposed by the President of the Russian Federation, whilst democratic principles normally request that people are elected at the level where they exercise their responsibility.

With regard to local self-government, at some stage, there were plans to replace the elections of mayors by a system of their appointment by governors. The Congress declared that such a measure would be against the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Although these plans were abandoned by the federal authorities, some governors still apparently request this measure.

New initiatives taken in 2006 with a view to amending the Federal Law No 131 on the general principles of organisation of local self-government in Russia (2003) and to the Federal Law No 184 on the general principles of organisation of legislative and executive organs of the State power in the Constituent entities (Subjects) of the Russian Federation of 1999, raised new concerns within the Congress, which were conveyed by the new President of the Congress, Halvdan SKARD, to the Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation in a letter of 9 June 2006. The aim of the proposed amendments was to set up a regime of substitution by the Subjects of the Federation of local authorities. The rather unclear draft provisions, the lack of guarantees for local authorities of their rights at federal level and the lack of any reference to the issue of financing need further clarification.

If we have sometimes criticized some of these evolutions, I would insist to say that this is not in any negative spirit but, on the contrary, that we are aware of the big difficulties and challenges that Russia has to face in order to organise the necessary reforms aimed at bringing the country fully into line with the principles of democracy and the rule of law. These principles, together with the respect for human rights, were reaffirmed again as being at the core of all the Council of Europe activities during the 3rd Summit of Heads of State and Government which was held in Warsaw last year.

The creation of 13 000 new municipalities in addition to the existing 11 000 constitute a step in the right direction as it will help to develop democracy at local level. At the same time, it is a huge challenge for the country. Russia needs sufficient local government financing and property distribution to make such municipalities work. In addition, with the creation of new municipalities there will be 100 000 of new civil servants and elected councillors that will be involved in local politics, an issue which, very often, will be completely new to them. This will require a major effort in training civil servants and local councillors and mayors.

The Russian Federation is at a crossroads, confronted with some fundamental choices: either to strengthen federalism, democracy and citizens’ participation in public life, or to ensure alleged efficiency through a single vertical structure of executive authority.

10 years after its accession to the Council of Europe, we can say that Russia has given a lot to our continent, not only through stability but also through its dynamism, its diversity, its great variety of languages and cultures that form European unity.

The Council of Europe and its Congress have accompanied the major reform process on federalism and local democracy in Russia initiated by President Putin and carried out, in the first round, by Dmitri Kozak and then by Vladimir Yakovlev and Vladimir Mokry, in a spirit of effective co-operation. We are determined to continue in this direction.

We believe that the Russian Federation can further contribute to promoting and implementing the Council of Europe values with regard to regional and local self-government.

This is the reason why among the priorities of its Chairmanship in the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (from May to November 2006), the Russian Federation decided, inter alia, to advance the Congress’ initiative to set up a Centre on inter-regional and transborder co-operation in Saint Petersburg and to host the Autumn Session of the Congress for 2006 in Moscow.

I would like to conclude by stressing once again that Russian authorities are our main partners in carrying out these initiatives in the Russian Federation – the initiatives which will be beneficial to the whole of Europe. It is only logical – because together we are stronger.

Thank you.