1000^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies

Belgrade, Friday 22 June 2007

Address by Mr Yavuz Mildon, President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Madam Chairman,

Distinguished Ambassadors,

On behalf of the Congress, allow me to join in the congratulations extended to you, Minister, and to the Serbian Chairmanship, who are responsible for the initiative of organising this 1000^th Session of the Ministers’ Deputies here in Belgrade.

I feel able to say that relations between the Congress and the Committee of Ministers have significantly developed over the past few years. On 2 May this year, the Committee of Ministers adopted a revised version of the Statutory Resolution and Charter, providing that the Congress is “a consultative organ composed of representatives of local and regional authorities”. At our 14^th Plenary Session three weeks ago, we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the creation of a representative structure for local authorities in the Council of Europe - the Conference of Local Authorities – which became the “Congress of Local and Regional Authorities” in 1994.

The Warsaw Summit in 2005 reaffirmed the importance of local and regional democracy for the good health of democracy in Europe, and the major role of the Congress in the pursuit of this mission.

This energising role of local democracy has been strikingly illustrated here in Serbia. I wish to recall in fact, paying due tribute to them, the decisive part played by Serbia’s mayors and local elected representatives in the restoration of democracy in this country. The courage which they showed by being among the first to oppose dictatorship is to be commended. Through their action they set the example.

The Congress, composed of local and regional elected representatives in close contact with the citizens, helps sustain local democracy and has launched several significant actions with and on behalf of the citizens of South-East Europe.  I am thinking primarily of the Local Democracy Agencies. The first Agency was set up here in Serbia at Subotica; subsequently 10 others were established by the Congress in various towns of the region, and in 2006 in Georgia. After 14 years of activities, they have done much to foster dialogue in divided towns between the different population groups and to promote intercultural dialogue. The Agencies now assist in the development of local democracy through what are often ambitious training and co-operation programmes.

Besides the important monitoring work based on the European Charter of Local Self-Government – which underpins our action – the Congress has contributed extensively since 2000 to the development of co-operation between the Associations of Local Authorities in South-East Europe by supporting the creation of a co-operation network for these Associations, known as NALAS.

The Congress is also an important vehicle for the furtherance of inter-territorial co-operation in the region. It supported and aided the creation, in the spring of 2006, of an Adriatic Euroregion. The Congress is carrying on its work of co-operation in other important geographic zones of Europe (the semi-landlocked seas) by organising on 25 and 26 June in Odessa (Ukraine) a 3^rd conference to promote the scheme for a Black Sea Euroregion after the conferences in Constanta (Romania) and Samsun (Turkey) in 2006.

On 3 July this year, continuing our action for the advancement of inter-regional co-operation, this time around the Baltic Sea and in the far north of Europe, the town of Tromsø in Norway, with the support of the Norwegian authorities whom I wish to thank, will be our host in order that the Congress may take inspiration from and acknowledge the already very highly developed examples of transfrontier co-operation in Northern Europe.

The ultimate goal of the Congress remains helping to build a Europe without dividing lines.