International Conference on the Role of Local Governments in Peace Building

Barcelona, 6-7 September 2007

Speech by Anders Knape, Vice President of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

It is an honour for me to represent here today, at this important forum, the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, a truly pan-European body which brings together local and regional elected representatives from more than 200,000 European territorial communities.

On behalf of the Congress, I wish to express my gratitude to the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Barcelona City Council, as well as to the Commission of City Diplomacy of United Cities and Local Governments and the Association of Dutch Municipalities, with which our Congress has established close cooperation ties, for taking the initiative of organising this conference, which will provide an open forum for sharing experiences, exchanging ideas and discussing common problems encountered in carrying out various projects aimed at fostering peace and better understanding between municipalities and communities on our continent and beyond.

This initiative is very timely as we are witnessing today the growing importance of action for peace at the municipal level in the framework of City Diplomacy, which has been gaining considerable momentum in recent years. The venue chosen for this event is also symbolic, because the City of Barcelona is well known for its activism at the international level and is well placed to be among the leading municipalities in advancing City Diplomacy.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The growing importance of City Diplomacy which I have just mentioned is also reflected in the fact that this year alone already saw two major events on the role of local authorities in peace building – an international conference in Eilat, Israel, in January 2007 and the 4^th World Mayors’ Summit in Istanbul last April, where the issue was also addressed.

This comes as no surprise because local authorities have a crucial role to play in decentralised cooperation projects which can make a significant contribution towards a peaceful development. From this viewpoint, City Diplomacy is an interesting concept which can help to make important international actors, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, for example, more aware of the peace-building actions that are carried out at the local level. Their support is vital and can result in more local initiatives.

However, the term “City Diplomacy” needs to be developed further. We need to make clear, and communicate clearly on how City Diplomacy is complementing traditional diplomacy, such as that carried out by the United Nations or the European Union. If we succeed in doing this, I am sure that there will be a new dimension of decentralised cooperation projects which will see the light of day in the years to come.

It is clear that there can be no lasting peace without a genuine culture of peace permeating all levels of society – a culture based on tolerance for each other’s differences, acceptance of diversity, and respect for another person’s opinion. Without it, the only thing we can achieve is a truce, an armistice, a pause before a new conflict begins.

The culture of peace, embedded in the philosophy of “Never Again” born out of the ashes of the Second World War, made it possible to put an end to all “hot” conflicts on our continent, and, at least in Western Europe, to live in peace for more than 60 years. Of course, we still have many challenges in front of us. But, having secured, to a large extent, democratic and peaceful development on our continent, we see it as our task and duty to share our experience and spread the culture of peace beyond Europe, first and foremost to our immediate neighbours on the southern rim of the Mediterranean, including the Middle East.

As I said at the outset, local authorities have a crucial role to play in promoting peace initiatives. Peace is only effective when it begins at the grassroots level, at the level of territorial communities, both local and regional, at the level of every individual, every family. Violence, this adversary of peace, starts in our houses and on our streets, in our cities and villages.

But it is also at this level where the action to ease interethnic and intercommunal tensions, to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue yields the most tangible results. This is exactly why City Diplomacy of today is complementary to traditional diplomacy – after all, it is in the cities of the ancient world where democracy began, reminding all of us still today that all democracy, much as all politics, is local. It is in the cities where people dwell, and it is the word “city” which gave birth to the word “citizen”.

Today, we are witnessing the rebirth of city power. The end of the ideological confrontation in Europe, the fall of Communist regimes and the consequent enlargement of both the Council of Europe and the European Union paved the way to the creation of a truly pan-European space and, as borders continue to disappear, the devolution of power towards territorial communities. Against this background, municipalities are taking on an ever greater importance in the political, economic and social fields, which creates an excellent opportunity for developing City Diplomacy, with cities concluding cooperation agreements not only with other cities or regions but even with national governments. External relations are no longer an exclusive issue of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs within national governments. Towns, cities and metropolitan areas are becoming more and more multiethnic, multireligious, multilinguistic.

The world is changing, with cities regaining much of the power which used to be in the remit of central authorities, and we must use this momentum to advance to the maximum our peace agenda. In this context, our Congress is currently preparing a report on city diplomacy, which will be discussed at the Congress session this autumn.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The cities, which in the past used to be the cause of so many wars, must now become, and are increasingly becoming, a role model for peace, using their growing influence to engage their natural partners – national and regional governments and parliaments. It was Machiavelli who once said: “To win the war, destroy a city”. Our time is different. Today we say: “To win peace, empower the city”.

Thank you.