20th Annual Conference of ENTO
St Petersburg, 26-27 September 2007
Speech by President Halvdan Skard, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A little more than three hundred years ago, Peter the Great founded this beautiful city of St Petersburg which he called a “Window to Europe”, meant to serve as a bridge linking Russia with the rest of the continent. Today, as St Petersburg is hosting this Annual Conference of the European Network of Training Organisations for local and regional authorities (ENTO), we can really say that Peter the Great’s vision has come true. Russia today is an important member state of the Council of Europe and its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, which I represent. Russia is playing a major role in building a Europe based on our shared values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
This is why I see the place proposed for this conference – the City of St Petersburg – as an excellent and symbolic initiative, demonstrating the unity of our big family of European democracies on this continent which was still divided in the not so distant past.
Please allow me, on behalf of the Congress, to welcome you to this conference and annual seminar, which will focus on education and training for local and regional authorities within the framework of the Bologna Process for Higher Education. I wish to give special thanks to the local organisers of this event – the North West Academy of Public Administration, which is an active member of ENTO and of its Bureau, and personally to the Rector of the Academy – Mr Alexander Gorshkov.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The importance of education and training for local and regional authorities was clearly recognised already at the time of the creation of ENTO. The importance is growing today both against the background of the European integration and globalisation processes and because of the changing European political landscape. These processes are bringing about the devolution of power towards territorial communities, coupled with the transfer of competences and financial means to the level closest to the citizen.
Regionalisation in Europe and local self-government reform in many Council of Europe member states, have led, and are leading, to the creation of new local and regional structures. These require well-qualified staff to carry out duties bestowed on territorial authorities and aimed at meeting the evolving expectations of our populations.
This, in turn, entails a reinforced role of organisations such as ENTO in providing the needed education and training. The importance of education, of spreading knowledge and making it ever more accessible for all in our globalising society, was also recognised both by the European Union in its Lisbon Strategy and by Council of Europe member states which launched the Bologna Process aimed at establishing the European Higher Education Area by 2010. As a truly pan-European Organisation of 47 countries, the Council of Europe, and its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in particular, provide an excellent platform for cooperation and sharing of experience and best practices in pursuing these goals across the entire continent.
This is why the Council of Europe Congress has always welcomed and supported innovative initiatives put forward by our partner organisations among which ENTO plays one of the most significant roles. These initiatives contributing to the construction of our common European home, development of democracy and free civil society, strengthening of the rule of law and protection of human rights. In this regard, the quality of training provided by ENTO to elected and appointed representatives of the regional and local authorities is directly linked indeed to both the quality of the services for citizens, of community leadership and, eventually, the quality of life of our 800 million fellow Europeans. And this, in turn, is a guarantee of political stability and democratic development in Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
European training institutions are facing new challenges. We will need to find new approaches to ensure that the Bologna Process corresponds fully to the current European cultural and legal environment, and fulfils its needs. These new challenges, which our dynamic times are bringing about, must be met with timely and accurate answers which can successfully move us forward to new heights. ENTO can make a sizable and valuable contribution to this process, and we see the present conference and seminar as an important step in this direction.
We are well aware that in recent years your organisation has done quite a great deal of work in carrying out various projects in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Turkey. With this, you have enlarged the geographical scope of your activities, spreading them to other parts of Europe but also accepting enormous challenges which it entails. . Just to give you an example, the recent municipal reform here in the Russian Federation has brought about 12,000 new municipalities in this country – a major task for ENTO as far as meeting the training needs of elected representatives and their staff is concerned. This work, your projects in South Caucasus and South-East Europe, has been given full credit both by those who use training services and your partners in the Council of Europe, and I hope that our joint efforts in this respect will be increased even more in the future.
We would welcome very much to see a report on the work of ENTO which could be presented during the annual session of the Congress in 2008. It would help to inform Congress members about your work, receive their further support and enhance their participation in your activities.
I would like to conclude by wishing your conference and seminar every success in its work, and I look forward to your deliberations. What we need today is innovative action – “innovaction” – in the field of education and training. It is in this spirit that ENTO was created, and it is in this spirit that it continues to operate. For its part, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will continue to be ENTO’s reliable and active partner in implementing projects and programs initiated by your organisation and aimed at strengthening and developing staff potential of the European regions and municipalities.
Let us keep the innovative spirit alive as we meet in the City of ST Petersburg – itself, an innovative project of Peter the Great.
Thank you.