AEBR-Forum Rural Development and Border Regions

Kloster Seeon (Landkreis Traunstein), 12 March 2007

Statement by Mr Jürgen Stadelmann, Member of the Committee on Sustainable Development of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear friends,

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude for having been invited to speak at this Forum, organised by the Association of European Border Regions, with which the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe has long-standing and very fruitful relations. It comes as no surprise because these relations are based on the shared objectives between the Congress and the Association, aimed at strengthening transborder cooperation, interregional development, decentralisation and regionalisation across our continent, as well as implementing integrated policies in the fields of environment and spatial planning.

The central theme of this Forum is rural development, which is also one of the most important issues dealt with by the Congress, and in particular by its Committee on Sustainable Development which I represent. It is clear that the goal of maintaining vital and productive rural communities cannot be reached without the commitment of local and regional authorities, who should be involved in all stages of drawing-up and implementing rural development programmes.

And here is where the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities comes into play, being part of the Council of Europe, this truly pan-European Organisation of 46 member states stretches from Reykjavik to Ankara and from Lisbon to Vladivostok. The Congress is a representative body of more than 200,000 local and regional communities of our continent, offering them an opportunity for political cooperation, policy making and exchange of best practices at the levels closest to citizen. The diversity of the rural areas which we cover ranges from extremely sparsely populated regions in Siberia to densely populated rural areas in, for example, the Netherlands.

As I have already said, rural issues and the particular situation of border regions are high on the agenda of the Council of Europe and its Congress. We recognise that many rural and peripheral areas face particular economic handicaps and that demographic trends, globalisation and climate change exacerbate this. Our policies focus on integrated approaches to the environment seeking to provide ways of improving the quality of life in rural and sparsely populated areas.

These approaches are given substance through some key instruments of the Council of Europe.  The European Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation, in place for over 25 years, encourages and facilitates cross-border agreements between local and regional authorities. It is the driving force behind many transfrontier associations and associations of local authorities, cooperating on issues of regional development, environmental protection and the improvement of public services.


Keen to build upon and concretise such cooperation, the Congress has been working for many years on developing a new generation of Euroregions which would bring together national, regional and local authorities from both EU and non-EU countries. In 2006, we launched the Adriatic Euroregion, which will be governed by the Adriatic Council headquartered in Pula, Croatia. We are currently working on setting up the Black Sea Euroregion, which will also include Armenia and Azerbaijan. Last but not least, we have established a reflection group on the Baltic Sea Euroregion.

In the same spirit, the Congress has been working on setting up a Centre for interregional and transfrontier cooperation in St Petersburg to build bridges between regions across Europe, whether they are bordering each other or not, and to encourage political, economic and cultural cooperation between local, regional and national administrations.

Another legal instrument at our disposal is the European Landscape Convention, which is the first international document to link landscape quality to the quality of life throughout Europe. Adopted in 2000, it has been ratified by 26 countries up till now. The Convention stresses the key role of local and regional authorities in landscape protection, management and development.  It offers politicians and planners a unique tool to conserve, restore and recreate the lost or damaged cultural as well as natural heritage, and to reinforce the protection of the landscape.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Polycentric development and networks are often seen as offering a means to reduce the growing territorial disparities which pose a threat to Europe’s territorial cohesion. The European Conference of Ministers responsible for Spatial/Regional Planning (CEMAT), set up by the Council of Europe, has recently adopted a Resolution on such networks and partnerships. By their very nature these networks invite both horizontal and vertical cooperation between various levels of government as well as with the private and voluntary sectors. They have now become the central focus of effective governance across Europe and are used, for example, to improve transport infrastructures to ensure integration of remote and sparsely populated areas.

As I said from the outset, the concerns of rural development and border regions are fully addressed within the work programme of the Committee on Sustainable Development of our Congress.  We are currently examining the issue of services of general interest in rural areas, in order to forestall rural exodus and depopulation, to ensure the long-term viability of local economies, and to boost local employment.

It is clear that we need territorial policies to enhance economic potential and social well-being in rural areas, aimed at providing universal to, and accessibility of, transport and communication means, education, health and administrative services, and all other essential services. In this context, we will particularly welcome your comments on this issue as we are currently preparing a report dealing with these questions.

For rural communities, depopulation and population ageing are additional threats to the already sizeable challenges posed by geography, economics and structural handicaps. The Committee on Sustainable Development is addressing these issues in particular through its work on peripheral and sparsely populated regions where infrastructure frequently fails to reach the efficiency threshold, entailing low levels of investment, a lack of economies of scale, high logistical costs, difficulty in competing and a high unemployment rate. We believe that regional development models based on a polycentric approach will help integration into the global economy and a sustainable development of local communities. For example, developing a transport infrastructure for local integration of remote and sparsely populated labour markets can increase the capacity of these communities to benefit from improved external accessibility.

The question of sustainability of our territorial communities has acquired a tremendous importance over the recent years, raising the role and responsibilities of local and regional authorities to a new level. Our Committee on Sustainable Development is committed to assisting these authorities and developing good practices in the filed of sustainable development, as these priorities show.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to conclude by stressing once again the important partnership established between the Congress and your Association, both in our networks and in our reflections and deliberations on the issues facing our citizens, not least in the field of rural development. I am sure that this Forum will contribute a great deal to our future joint activities, and I look forward to today’s discussions.

Thank you.