Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to start by greeting the many friends that I see here, at this event organised in the year of the 10th anniversary since Ukraine ratified the European Charter of Local Self-Government. This seminar is a good occasion to take a look at how we can move forward with the Charter’s application.
There is an old Chinese adage that says: “God forbid that you live in a time of change”. It is true, many people are apprehensive of changing things and even reluctant to change. Change shakes up traditional systems, our worldview, our set of values.
But change also provides an opportunity for a makeover, an opportunity for improving things, for moving ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, we ARE living in a time of change today. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communist regimes paved the way for European unification and integration, for a Europe without dividing lines. With the enlargement of the Council of Europe and then the European Union, which embraced new democracies of central and eastern Europe, the administrative borders have begun to disappear, changing the political landscape of our continent – but also the balance of powers. The tremendous transformations of the past decade gave boost to decentralisation processes, creating a shift of political, economic and social power towards the sub-national, inter-territorial level, to the level of territorial communities – regions and municipalities.
We in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe strongly believe that the future of our continent lies in reinforcing local and regional democracy, fostering cross-border cooperation and dialogue between Europe’s towns and regions, and promoting regional diversity. We recognise regions as key partners in the European project, if we are to build a Europe at the level closest to the citizen, a more humane and inclusive Europe of fairness and social cohesion, if we are to enhance participatory democracy on our continent.
Regions today are taking on a growing importance as far as economic and social development is concerned. This is why it is important to ensure that they have clear competences and responsibilities supported by financial resources, that they have democratically elected governing bodies, whether they be legislative or executive, and that they have the decision-making power over their own activities and budgets. These are the principles that were set out in the Congress Recommendation 34 in 1997, a recommendation on the draft Charter of Regional Self-Government. I certainly hope that this goal, the goal of having a new legal instrument on regional democracy, will be achieved soon.
The same recommendation stressed, however, that recognition of regional self-government entails loyalty towards the State to which the region belongs, with due regard to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We see regional diversity as an important factor of democratic development, contributing to the strength and richness of a State, and not undermining them.
The principles guiding the formation and functioning of regional democracy were reaffirmed by the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government, held in Helsinki in 2002, which focused on the outlines, syntheses and six models of regional self-government and adopted the so-called Helsinki Principles. Thus, the efforts of the Congress and of the EU Committee of the Regions in favour of the regionalisation process were supported by European governments.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Congress has been actively involved in boosting regionalisation across our continent, especially in central and eastern Europe, it comes as no surprise that we initiated the setting-up of the Task Force on Regionalisation in Ukraine soon after this country joined the Council of Europe. Significant progress has been made since then, due to a large extent to a series of seminars such as this one, aimed at reinforcing regional democracy in Ukraine. We certainly hope that this seminar, and its results, will contribute to the acceleration of the process.
We also hope that Ukraine will show strong involvement in our ongoing projects in the field of interregional and transfrontier cooperation. In this context, the Congress welcomes the fact that Ukraine has become a party to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Cooperation, allowing territorial communities of this country to establish closer links and cooperation frameworks with communities in other countries. The fact that this happened just before Ukraine joined the Council of Europe is an encouraging signal. These issues were discussed in more detail at a Conference the Congress organized over a year ago in the Ukrainian City of Lutsk. Our only regret in this context is that one of your neighboring countries, Belarus, has not yet .been able to join our democratic family in the Council of Europe
The Congress also wishes to reinforce local and regional co-operation initiatives in the democratic setting, and within this the social, economic, cultural and environmental fields. In this last respect we all know that the ecosystems of the European semi-closed seas are becoming increasingly fragile. The creation of Euro-regions around the European seas can be considered as a good tool to achieve greater economic and social cohesion at the level closest to the citizen and a better development of economic and cultural links.
A proposal to create Euro-regions for these European seas gained support at several levels, and on 3 June 2006 the Adriatic Euro-region - which brings together national, regional and local authorities of both EU and non-EU member states of the Adriatic - opened its doors in Pula (Croatia). We are now launching the Black Sea Euro-region, whose last step was the international Conference held in Samsun (Turkey) at the beginning of the month of November 2006. We are certain that Ukraine will take an active part in this initiative, much as in our other project aimed at setting up a Centre for interregional and transfrontier cooperation in St Petersburg, in Russia.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to conclude by stressing once again the importance of regional development for the future of democracy on our continent. This is why we will continue our efforts aimed at creating regions with genuine powers and financial means, strong regions within strong nation States working for the benefit of our citizens. And this is also why we continue with the project of regionalization in Ukraine, which, I am sure, will be a success story. This seminar will add to this success story.
Thank you.