Fifth European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns

Taking the Commitments to the Streets

Seville, 21-24 March 2007

Closing address by Myriam Constantin,

Member of the Committee of Sustainable Development

of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe

Mr Mayor, Secretary General

Friends,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are just completing, here in Seville, the Fifth European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns, whose success shows, if this were necessary, how important it is for local and regional elected representatives to respond to the challenges of sustainable development.

Sustainable development is now essential for our citizens. The inhabitants of our towns and cities are no longer prepared to suffer the consequences of uncontrolled global economic development that threatens the environment. They are no longer willing to accept climate change, the destruction of our natural resources or the effects of pollution on human health. Instead, they want a form of controlled development that will establish the basis for sustainable growth and ensure them a good quality of life, employment and a reasonable future for their children. This is the challenge that we as local representatives face.

It is a great honour for me today to be representing the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, a pan-European organisation representing 200 000 local and regional authorities in 46 member countries, from Reykjavik to Ankara, and from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

As our colleagues on the Committee of the Regions meet today in Rome to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the European Union's founding treaties, I should like to remind you that 2007 also has a significance for us in the Congress, as the fiftieth anniversary of local democracy in Europe.

It was in 1957 that the Council of Europe created the then Conference of Local Authorities, now the Congress. It was the very first European institution dedicated to the development of local democracy, in which local elected representatives could take part, in a spirit of dialogue, in the framing of European policies and legal instruments. In 1957, for the first time in history, national states entered on the path towards genuine local self-government.

In the intervening years, our elected representatives have not only contributed to the construction of a Europe in which all recognise and share the values of pluralist democracy, human rights and the rule of law, but have also made their voices heard as local and regional members.

Issues relating to local and regional policies that for long were a national preserve now extend beyond state frontiers. The subsidiarity principle, as accepted by governments, has given fresh impetus to the decentralisation process throughout the continent and prepared the ground for the 1985 Charter of Local Self-Government.

The Charter enshrines the principle that effective local self-government is essential to democracy and establishes other principles that should govern relations between local authorities and central government. It has so far been ratified by 42 of the 46 Council of Europe member states.

It is highly symbolic that my own country, France, one of the Council's founder members and its host country, ratified the Charter in January this year, the year in which we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the coming of local democracy in Europe. But not only is it symbolic – it is also a sign that France has made up for a certain amount of lost ground, and so much the better.

We should note that all 27 Union member states have now ratified this convention, which has become the international treaty of reference regarding local democracy. Article 5 of the proposed Constitutional Treaty of the European Union makes explicit reference to it.

Fifty years is both a long and a short time. We are proud that, at their Warsaw Summit in May 2005, the Council of Europe's heads of state and government solemnly reaffirmed the importance of the local and regional dimension for Europe's future. The action plan adopted by the Summit paid particular attention to local and regional democracy and acknowledged the Congress's key role in European construction. We welcome this progress, both in thinking and in practice.

Finally, I cannot continue this brief historical review without paying tribute to the local authority associations, particularly the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, which as early as 1951 was the first European non-governmental organisation to throw its weight behind the decentralisation process. The Council of Europe's creation gave birth to a popular movement that maintains that a living democracy is impossible unless it affects citizens at first hand. This organisation of mayors and other local representatives also supports exchanges and partnerships between local authorities in different countries of Europe.

So much progress in fifty years. We have been meeting here in Seville on the initiative of various local and regional authority associations and networks that participate in the Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign. They share the same commitment to sustainable development and seek to ensure that this approach is not the exclusive domain of European or international organisations but one to which local authorities and their local partners can contribute their experience.

The Congress therefore considers that co-operation with local authority associations is a key aspect of its own development and of the future of local and regional authorities.

Over the last fifty years, we in the Congress have believed in the benefits of exchanges of experience and joint mobilisation to respond to the ever more complex challenges that face us at local and regional level.

We have made considerable progress in this direction and over the years have seen a growing interest in local and regional issues on the part of other international organisations. However, this is not the place for a long list of the initiatives, charters and conventions that have seen the light, thanks to Congress initiation or support.

Although our organisation is recognised for its key role, which is that of monitoring local and regional democracy and our member countries' application of the Charter of Local Self-Government, as well as for its observation of elections (in which I have had the good fortune to take part), the sustainable development of local and regional authorities is now another fundamental area of activity. We understand the term in its broadest sense to mean not only protection of the environment and natural resources but also the incorporation of social, cultural and economic dimensions. We also see sustainable development as an integral part of local democracy and our citizens' rights.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There is broad consensus on the principle of sustainable development. However, the transversal and interdisciplinary approach that it requires of those on the ground still runs up against certain well entrenched and rigid practices, representations and cultures in the public sphere.

If the environment issue has always highlighted the lack of a transversal approach to government, sustainable development complicates the matter still further by requiring the integration of often conflicting elements and complex links between geographical areas and over time.

Moreover, the non-sustainable trends of which we are well aware - climate change, energy consumption, threats to public health, poverty and social exclusion, demographic pressures and an ageing population, the depletion of natural resources – require urgent and short term action while at the same time the establishment of much longer term objectives.

We at the Congress all share these concerns and are convinced that the main challenge is how to secure a progressive change in our current non-sustainable forms of consumption and production, and how to alter the often excessively compartmentalised way in which we frame and implement policies.

We advocate an integrated, multi-partner, multidisciplinary and participative approach. If we are to develop corporate management strategies, those concerned need to be properly trained and local resources strengthened.

This is the spirit in which we draw up our recommendations. We are well aware that the sustainable development of our urban areas cannot be a subject for conflict and partisan debate. We live in historic times and alongside the European Union of 27 countries the Congress has a fundamental role to play.

We see ourselves as a laboratory for European construction. We have adopted a comprehensive approach to the challenges of globalisation and European integration. We must advance united and involve everyone in our collective effort. A vibrant local and regional democracy is not incompatible with such developments but rather complements them.

This briefly is our philosophy. As a political organisation representing local and regional elected members, we share one particular attribute that is essential for political action, that of perseverance. This is how we will succeed in implementing the carefully thought out and integrated policies necessitated by the complex nature of our societies.

Fifty years on, we are continuing the task of European construction, by ensuring that the whole of Europe is firmly anchored in local democracy.

Thank you.