Speech by Ludmila Sfirloaga, Vice President of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities,

At 2^nd South-Eastern Europe Regional Ministerial Conference on “Effective Democratic Governance at Local and Regional Level”

8-9 November 2006, Skopje

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All nations, countries and even regions have golden times and difficult times in their history. What is important is to pass through the difficult times to arrive at a golden age. South-East Europe, with its rich history and its important place on our continent, has been recently passing through very difficult times – the times of war, strife, and hatred.  Today, we can say that these times are over. Today, South-East Europe is living in the time of reconstruction, reconciliation, and development. Today, all countries of South-East Europe are members of the Council of Europe, having joined the family of European democracies.

Our task now is to build up the framework of democratic institutions aimed at securing unity and stability in the region at all levels – national, regional and local. As Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, I must stress that the prospects for stability and peace certainly begin at the level of territorial communities – if there is no peace and reconciliation between territorial communities recently torn apart by conflict, there will be no peace in the region as a whole.

This is why our Congress has been actively promoting confidence-building measures and the development of local democracy in South-East Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communist regimes opened the way for European unification on the basis of democratic pluralism, respect for human rights and the rule of law – the core principles of the Council of Europe.

We started with the creation of a network of local democracy agencies, aimed at improving governance at local level, which today is no longer confined to South-East Europe, with the recent opening, in September this year, of a local democracy agency in Kutaisi, Georgia. Over the years since its creation, the network has evolved into an association of local democracy agencies, ALDA, which receives wide support from national governments in South-East Europe.

Another important field of action was the setting-up of the Network of Local Authorities of South-East Europe, NALAS, which brought together local authorities representing some 60 million people on the region. You will recall that NALAS, together with the Congress, have actively contributed to the first Ministerial Conference on South-East Europe, held in Zagreb in 2004, and have been strongly supporting the work within the framework of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe concerning the development of local democracy and cross-border cooperation.         

We in the Congress believe that NALAS has a very important role to play in improving democratic governance at local and regional level, and advancing decentralization in South-East Europe, bringing more power to territorial communities. This is why we have always been insisting on creating a cooperation network between national associations of municipalities and NALAS, including through the Forum of Cities and Regions of South-East Europe, launched by the Congress several years ago and aimed at promoting cooperation projects and twinning between cities both within South-East Europe and between South-East Europe and other regions of our continent.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Decentralisation of power towards territorial communities, which has been one of the most salient features of the European integration process, created an excellent opportunity for advancing interregional and cross-border cooperation across Europe. The Council of Europe Congress has been very active in this field for a long time, and has recently launched new initiatives involving in particular South-East Europe. I am talking about the creation of Euro-regions of a new type around European semi-closed seas, which would bring together national, regional and local authorities of both EU and non-EU member states.

The Adriatic Euroregion was successfully launched this year, with the participation of South-East European countries, and we are now working on the establishment of the Black Sea Euroregion, having already held two conferences on the subject – in Constanta, Romania, in March and in Samsun, Turkey, just a few days ago. We certainly hope that all South-East European countries will take an active part in these projects. Another initiative I would like to mention is the proposal to set up a Centre for inter-regional and cross-border cooperation in St Petersburg, to promote links and joint projects between regions in Europe, whether bordering or not. 

I would also like to mention that the Congress has been promoting proposed draft agreements on local border traffic between states of South-Eastern Europe, and on mutual assistance between states of South-Eastern Europe in the event of disasters occurring in border areas, as part of our overall cooperation framework with the region, as well as the development and implementation of national action plans on decentralisation in each country in South-East Europe.

If I put so much emphasis on decentralisation, it is because we in the Congress strongly believe that the efficiency of governance and the quality of public services can be best ensured when delivered at the level closest to the citizen – the level of territorial communities, regional and local. Decentralisation of governance and empowering communities is our task today, for the benefit of South-East Europeans and all European citizens. I am sure that this Conference, to which I wish every success, will contribute to bringing this process forward.

Thank you.