Address by the Secretary of State of the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development, Deputy Minister Vitaliy Shipov, delivered at the session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, on the presentation of the Russian Federation's report on implementation of Recommendation 143 (2004) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on local and regional democracy in the Russian Federation
Strasbourg, 20 November 2007
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all I would like to thank the Congress for its invitation and the opportunity given to me to speak at this forum.
The first time that I had the honour of speaking from this tribune was in the capacity of Mayor of Kaliningrad, some 15 years ago. And the theme was a related one - establishing and developing local self-government in Russia. In that connection, I can state, authoritatively, that cooperation with the Council of Europe and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities played a substantial role in the carrying out of reforms in Russia and really positively influenced the actual process of establishing and developing local and regional democracy in Russia.
I am sure that today's debate on this question at the Congress session will make it possible to pursue the lasting trend towards broadening dialogue and give fresh impetus both for further democratic reforms and for increasing the effectiveness of governance at local and regional levels.
The principal political and ideological task in 2004-2007 was to develop Russia as a free and democratic State.
A number of laws were adopted during those years, improving the state and political system of the Russian Federation and, in particular, relations between the federal centre, constituent entities of the Federation and municipal entities.
In the area of federal relations, legislative acts reflecting contemporary Russian realities were adopted, enabling us to resolve the most acute problems such as the restoration of governability and preservation of state integrity. The resulting model of federalism is characterised by the following specific features.
The first of these entails strengthening the federal centre by ensuring its supreme position through federal legislation.
A second involves a shift from contractual relations with individual constituent entities of the Russian Federation to legislative demarcation of powers, which establishes an equal degree of powers in areas of joint competence for all constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
A third feature relates to the introduction of the possibility for the highest federal authorities to establish temporary financial administration in situations determined by law (ie crisis situations) and take prompt action to resolve the crisis in the Russian Federation constituent entity concerned.
The creation of a single system of executive authority has been supplemented by the introduction of a new procedure for assigning powers to governors, implemented by the legislative authorities of Russian Federation constituent entities at the proposal of the Russian President.
The election of governors by regional legislative assemblies, as de facto electoral colleges, while maintaining a right of veto for deputies, is a fully democratic system and guarantees a unified approach to resolving issues of joint competence shared by the federal centre and the regions.
One important element in strengthening democratic foundations at regional level is the legislative norm providing for the possibility for the country's President to propose a representative of the party which won the regional elections for the post of top official for a Russian Federation constituent entity.
The construction of this system has made it possible to restore unity of the legal area and preserve Russia's territorial and political integrity and has substantially enhanced governability in the country.
In addition, the State has been afforded real possibilities to devolve many functions and make fuller funding provision for the powers of regions and local authorities.
Today, the devolution of state administrative powers in Russia has attained its highest ever level.
In 2004-2007, the Federation's constituent entities were assigned most important powers in urban development, forestry, land and water management, protection of wildlife, and also in education, health protection, culture and employment. This work will be continued and extended to local self-government too.
Substantial progress has been made in carrying out local government reforms.
As of 1 January 2007 the boundaries of 24,219 municipal entities were established within the Russian Federation (as opposed to 11,733 before the reform), including:
- 522 urban districts;
- 1,801 municipal districts;
- 1,741 urban communes;
- 19,919 rural communes; and
- 236 intra-urban municipal entities of federal cities.
Over 15,000 heads of municipal entities were elected in municipal elections, and around 9,000 leaders were elected from among deputies of representative organs of municipal entities. Heads of some 4,000 local administrations were appointed under contract on a competitive basis. Around 252,000 deputies were elected in municipal elections.
New approaches to the demarcation of powers between state authorities and local authorities have also fixed specific details for the composition and structure of taxes and dues in the Russian Federation, the distribution of tax revenues to budgets of different levels of the Russian Federation's budgetary system, and the establishing of common organisational principles for inter-budgetary relationships and mechanisms of interaction between the Russian Federation, constituent entities and municipal entities.
In this context the fundamental aim of demarcating revenues between the different levels of the budget system was to ensure the greatest possible correlation of revenues with the respective expenditure obligations at each level of public authority.
For the first time, specific sources of funding have been secured at federal level for each type of municipal entity and on a permanent basis, drawn both from entities' own funding and from fixed portions of the corresponding federal taxes and dues.
Steps have been taken to increase the autonomy of local self-government bodies in spending local budget funds.
In order to equalise the level of budget allocation in all the Russian Federation's constituent entities, financial support funds for municipal entities have been set up. And to ensure shared funding of priority socially oriented expenditure of local budgets in the constituent entities, regional co-financing funds for social expenditure have been established.
In line with legislation, within the framework of local government reform, the state authorities of the Russian Federation's constituent entities are transferring property free of charge into municipal ownership for the purpose of dealing with local matters. This has been done in most of the regions. Completion of the process is scheduled for the end of the transition period allowed for the reform, by 1 January 2009.
In accordance with the Federal law on local self-government and in the interests of interaction between local self-government bodies and the expression and protection of municipalities' common interests, associations, known as councils of municipal entities, have been set up in every Russian Federation constituent entity.
And in 2006, these councils of municipal entities founded a United Russia-wide association of municipal entities (Congress) as a national association of local authorities.
Judicial protection of local self-government rights and interests is directly provided for in the Russian Federation Constitution and the Federal law on local self-government. It is also noteworthy that the legal views stated by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation have recognised municipal entities as associations of citizens with local self-government bodies acting on their behalf and, accordingly, the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation now readily admits legitimate complaints from both local self-government bodies and their officials.
The federal authority determining state policy in the area of local self-government is the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development.
State policy is devised and implemented through legal regulation, via the preparation and adoption of acts of the Russian Federation President, federal laws and acts of Government, which are drawn up either directly by the Ministry of Regional Development or by other legal entities with a right of legislative initiative.
Operating within the Ministry of Regional Development is a Council on Local Self-Government, whose membership includes heads of municipal entities, leaders of associations and unions of municipal entities and experts. The Ministry's website features a special page dedicated to the development of local self-government in the Russian Federation.
Russia has yet to sign or ratify the Convention on the participation of foreigners in public life at local level concluded in Strasbourg on 5 February 1992.
However, Russian legislation is being amended in accordance with the principles underlying that Convention. The President of the Russian Federation has signed amendments to the legislation on municipal elections enabling persons registered as having temporary residence to take part in local authority elections. This issue is currently governed by agreements between Russia and other States. To implement the federal legislation, Russian Federation constituent entities are adjusting their laws accordingly.
Virtually all levels of public authority in the Russian Federation and also the country's population have been directly involved in the local government reform process in the period 2004-2007.
Of course, we cannot say that all the problems of local government have been resolved. A colossal amount of work has been done but, at the same time, a number of issues require further decisions to be taken.
Given that efforts during the transition period for implementing Federal Law no. 131 will continue up until 1 January 2009, there is still time to resolve those issues.
The federal authorities have to continue their work on devising methods and criteria for determining the real amount of funding required by municipalities to exercise their assigned powers for dealing with local matters.
In connection with the transition to three-year socio-economic and financial planning, devising schemes for territorial planning and programmes for socio-economic development of municipalities is becoming a necessity for all types of municipality.
As an incentive to regions and municipalities to expand their own tax potential, a system of indicators is being set up for gauging the efficiency of authorities.
Territories achieving a high rate of economic development in relation to their previous year's performance must be rewarded with not only moral satisfaction but also meaningful and substantial material aid from the federal or regional budget.
Furthermore, there are a number of social problems that are extremely important for both the federal centre and regional and local authorities which must be resolved by interaction between all levels of authority. They are the subject of large-scale national projects in the fields of education, health protection, housing construction and agriculture. One significant move was to allocate funding and set up a state corporation for the complete overhaul of housing stock and the liquidation of dilapidated and unfit housing.
Establishing an effective system for training and retraining municipal officials is a most important task. One positive contribution to this was the holding of the 20th ENTO annual seminar this year in Saint Petersburg at the initiative of the Congress. Congress input into the development of a training network in Russia would be extremely useful.
Many years of experience have shown that transfrontier cooperation and interaction between regional and local authorities and foreign partners make it possible to resolve numerous socio-economic problems of communities and reinforce democratic stability. We welcome the efforts of the Congress in this area and we can say that this is one of the priority thrusts of activity for our Ministry.
The decisions taken recently in Valencia were geared to developing effective regional and local governance in greater Europe. One particularly important component of this is the strategy for good governance at local level, which may become a potent instrument for the democratic development of European countries. It has my endorsement and I can say that the Ministry of Regional Development is taking the necessary steps with a view to constructive cooperation to implement the agendas of the Budapest and Valencia declarations.
In the period that has just elapsed many goals have been achieved and a wealth of experience has been gained. But new goals and new paths for reaching them lie ahead of us.
On 2 November, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed a Decree "On the Russian Federation Presidential Council for the development of local self-government", chaired by the President himself and with a Presidium headed by the Head of the Government. The Council has been created in response to the wishes of municipalities and will facilitate the development of local and regional democracy in Russia.
Thank you for your attention.