Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government

Valencia, Spain, 15-16 October 2007

Speech by Halvdan Skard, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The great German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, once wrote: “Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves”. This vision of a society governed by its citizens, and a government serving them in doing so, has always been at the heart of the concept of democracy and democratic governance. And this concept, in its turn, has always been rooted in the level of towns and regions, of communities where people live, and which is the target of any public action we take.

The words of Goethe ring ever so true today, as we gather here, in Valencia, to ponder on ways of ensuring good governance at the local and regional level, of involving our citizens in the decision-making and increasing their participation in democratic processes. The theme of the first session of this conference – “Citizens at the heart of local democracy” – encapsulates, at the same time, the need to put people in the centre of our action, and our worry about their apparent indifference to the workings of democracy, often reflected in low voter turnouts, especially in local and regional elections, lack of inclusion for minorities, and the absence of new participatory methods, among other things. We all know that any politics are local; but it is also true that apathy to democracy begins at the local level as well, highlighting the need for efficient governance within our communities.

The main theme of this conference qualifies the task of ensuring good governance as a challenge – and challenge it is. Attaining the goal of making our citizens feel empowered to govern themselves is an ambitious undertaking. It requires concerted effort of all tiers of government, but it is most felt at the level of towns and regions, governed by democratically elected local and regional representatives of the people.

Only one week ago, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the Serbian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe organised an international conference in Novi Sad, the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, under the theme “Bringing together local and regional authorities for greater democratic cohesion in Europe”. The participants of that conference reaffirmed the need for more cohesion in public action, both between different tiers of government and within our societies learning to govern themselves through their representative bodies.

The conference in Novi Sad was also an occasion to take a closer look at the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Local Governance, proposed by the Council of Europe, which is one of the main issues before us here in Valencia. We in the Congress strongly believe that a prerequisite for good governance is close involvement of local and regional authorities, which serve as a link between national governments and territorial communities. Their active stand underpins any action at the national level, mustering popular support for it. This is why local and regional authorities will be key actors in implementing the European Strategy at the territorial level, and it comes as no surprise that the Congress, their representative body at the pan-European level, fully supports this initiative. The Strategy, which sets out 12 principles of democratic governance at the local level, is also closely intertwined with the Lisbon Strategy, launched by the European Union and aimed at promoting innovation and raising the level of knowledge of our populations, using new technologies and making them accessible for all our citizens.

The Congress is also following closely the implementation of the Budapest Agenda for delivering good local and regional governance (2005-2010), which is another document before us today. Here, again, it is our position that the delivery of high-quality public services is impossible without respect for the principle of subsidiarity, without the transfer of competences and means to the level closest to the citizen, which would only reflect the growing power of territorial communities as a result of the European integration and decentralisation processes. This position was also reaffirmed by the Council of Europe Heads of State and Government at the Warsaw Summit in 2005 – which created, if I may say so, the Budapest-Warsaw axis that set our agenda and plan of action on local and regional self-government for the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The need for decentralisation, the need to rely on territorial authorities in public action has been clearly recognised by national governments which alone find it difficult today to meet rising expectations of our citizens. This is why the Congress is paying particular attention to the question of regionalisation in Europe, which goes hand in hand with our action for strengthening local self-government and reflects our vision of a Europe of Towns and Regions, a Europe of Territorial Communities. We are pleased that this vision is shared by our partners in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, which only two weeks ago adopted a recommendation on regionalisation in Europe. We in the Congress strongly believe that guiding principles of regionalisation should be codified in a legal text, and we have been actively promoting the draft European Charter on Regional Democracy. The Congress intends to adopt a final proposal of the draft Charter at its session in May 2008 – a proposal which will be flexible to accommodate all regional realities in Council of Europe member states. Of course, we would hope for the active support to the draft Charter by the Ministers gathered here in Valencia.

It is clear that the action of territorial authorities may fall on deaf ears without raising awareness within local communities and receiving the feedback from them. This is the reason why we are active partners in the initiative to launch an annual European Local Democracy Week, which is also on the agenda of this conference and which is aimed at involving local populations and explaining to them the workings of local governance. We hope that local elected representatives as well as central authorities responsible for local self-government will support and respond actively to this initiative. The Congress is cooperating closely with the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy in mounting this action – much as on many other issues relating to local and regional self-government.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The busy agenda of this conference reflects its importance and timeliness. I am sure that this conference will be a stepping stone in building upon our past achievements and finding responses to challenges facing us today. I wish it every success, and I thank the Spanish Government and, more particularly, the City of Valencia for their offer to host it.

I would like to conclude by going back to Goethe’s vision of a society where citizens govern themselves – a vision which is closely linked to that of American founding fathers who spoke of the “government BY the people and FOR the people”. It is clear that good governance – the theme of our conference today – cannot be sustained without active participation of our citizens and their active involvement in democratic processes – which, as any democracy, begins at grassroots level, at the level of territorial communities. Let us all work together to turn a Europe of Towns and Regions into reality.

Thank you.