Congress of Local Self-Government in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Neum, 6-7 December 2007

Speech by the Vice-President of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Dubravca Suica

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to address this Congress today as Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – a unique assembly representing more than 200,000 territorial communities from 47 European countries, and the only body tasked with monitoring the development of local and regional democracy on our continent.

Over the past 17 years, the Congress has focussed a great deal of its activities on South-East Europe, a region which - we all know - has had more than its share of conflict. Our first response to the Balkan wars of the early 1990s was the creation of Local Democracy Agencies, LDAs, in South-East Europe, aimed at strengthening local self-government and building mutual trust in communities torn by wars. The Local Democracy Agencies, which have now formed an Association, are indeed our success story. Three of them are operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including two in the Federation – in Mostar and Zavidovici. Just recently, on 25 September 2007, the Local Democracy Agency in Mostar opened a new resource centre to support the democratisation process in this municipality and the region by strengthening local governance, building capacity in civil society, and offering a link between the city administration and its citizens, including of different ethnic groups.

Another axis of our action in South-East Europe has been promoting national associations of local authorities, which now have been brought together into the Network of Associations of Local Authorities in South-East Europe, NALAS, an important partner of the Council of Europe Congress. As funding for the implementation of the NALAS Action Plan was secured in 2007, the Network is now fully operational.

But, of course, the primary political role of the Congress is to monitor the state and development of local and regional democracy in our member states, both through country-specific monitoring reports and the observation of elections. This goes hand in hand with our action to expedite decentralisation processes in Europe. The Balkan wars of the not-so-distant past have been a stark reminder to all of us that democracy cannot be taken for granted, nor can it be established overnight. For us in the Congress, democracy must be built from the bottom up – because without grassroots democracy there is no democracy at all. We can only speak about democratic stability if it is based on the solid democratic foundation at the local and regional level.

This is why the Congress, in its recommendation on local and regional democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopted in November 2006, agreed with the rapporteurs, Christopher Newbury and Kirsten Behr, that radical change was needed, especially in the area of constitutional reform, in order to reinforce local and regional self-government.

The Congress recommended in particular that, at State level, a clear constitutional guarantee of local self-government be introduced, that would be binding for all tiers of public authorities, to guide the decisions of the Constitutional Court and to ensure compliance with the country’s obligations under the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Against the background of the difficult situation out of which Bosnia and Herzegovina has emerged, the Congress noted the country’s commitment to improve local and regional democracy; and found the legislation to be on the whole compatible with the Charter.

However, after five first years of the Charter’s application, the rapporteurs underlined improvements still remain to be made, including the need for the simplification of the public administrative structure in order to ensure efficiency. The rapporteurs were also concerned by the persisting use of ethnic criteria in the exercise of political rights by citizens, discrimination against minorities and limitations on political equality.

The Congress recommended that the Entities should provide for improvements to territorial structures, as far as possible creating municipalities of a sufficient size by means of legislation. The recommendation also points to the need to harmonise the Cantons’ laws in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to transfer the power of legislation and supervision in the field of local self-government to the Federal level.

Last but not least, the Congress appealed for greater co-operation between municipalities, including across the boundaries of the Entities and Cantons. This applies to intermunicipal co-operation by individual municipalities as well as to the associations of municipalities.

While there has certainly been some progress to implement these recommendations, in July this year, the Conference on the implementation of the Law on the Principles of Local Self-Government in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina underlined that further progress remains to be made. However, we do not come here to give lessons, but to offer our support, solidarity, and encouragement in the belief that, slowly but surely, we will build a society that is worthy of our people.

We are aware that democratization is a political process which takes time. It can be a bumpy road. But we have no doubt that, for all its difficulty, it is the road worth taking. In fact, this is the only way forward. More work is needed, and more work will be done. We, the elected representatives, owe this to our fellow citizens who placed their trust in us. And we in the Congress firmly believe that the benefits of our action are felt most at the level closest to the citizen, in our cities and our regions.

I wish all of us every success in our common endeavour.

Thank you.