Spring session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – Malaga (Spain) – 13 to 14 March 2008

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

For the opening of the Spring Session (Malaga, 13 March)

First and foremost, I wish to express my gratitude, on behalf of the Congress, to the City of Malaga and its Mayor, Francisco de la Torre Prados, for offering to host the Spring Session of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, from 12 to 14 March this year. It is only the second time in its history that the Congress will hold its session outside of Strasbourg, (the first being in Moscow in November 2006), and we welcome this opportunity to engage in a dialogue with local authorities and residents of our member states, to receive the first-hand knowledge of the situation, and to show our work so-to-speak “in the field”.

I also wish to use this opportunity to convey once again my condolences to the family and friends of Isaias Carrasco, a former municipal councillor of Mondragon, who was assassinated last week. We express our solidarity with the community of Mondragon in our firm belief that acts of terror – such as this gruesome murder – cannot be justified by any political cause.

Spain, which is hosting this Session, has a long-standing tradition of dealing with the issues of local and regional self-government, and it is not by accident that the European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government held their latest conference here in Spain, in Valencia, in October last year. May I recall that they approved the Council of Europe Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level, and launched a new annual event, the European Local Democracy Week, to be organised in October every year. Its objective is to raise public awareness of democratic processes at local level, and to enhance citizens’ participation. We strongly hope that Spanish communities will take an active part in this Week this year.

In 2002, the Congress noted the progress made in Spain in terms of the devolution of power towards territorial communities. For several years now, the total of local and regional budgets exceeds the national budget of Spain, and decentralisation substantially increased the power of regions. What is needed today is similar action in favour of local communities, especially concerning the budgetary distribution. Enhancing the role of local self-government is the matter in the hands of regional governments, and it will be interesting to see how the situation in Spain has evolved since the 2002 recommendation, and to engage in a dialogue with the Spanish government about the perspectives for the future. It is even more interesting because the rapporteur on regionalisation in the other elected body of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly, is Lluis Maria De Puig, a Spanish politician, and was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly in January this year. We in the Congress are delighted that this staunch defender of regional issues is now at the head of the Parliamentary Assembly, and we are confident that the Assembly will continue its support to the work of the Congress.

We have a wide range of issues on our agenda, and I will mention just a few of them. There will be two debates involving Spain – one, today, on the follow-up to the Congress’ recommendation of 2002 on local and regional democracy in Spain, with the participation of Maria Tena, Director General for Local Administration in the Ministry of Public Administration. The other debate, tomorrow, will allow for an exchange of views and experiences between Spanish elected representatives and their colleagues from other countries which have regional structures. We will also discuss today the evolution of local and regional democracy in Turkey, with the participation of Zekeriya Şarbak, Deputy Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Interior responsible for local and regional governments.

However, most of the Session is devoted to the essential issues of sustainable development and the work of the Congress’ Committee on Sustainable Development in the fields of adaptation to climate change, responsible consumption, biodiversity, access to services in rural areas, to name but a few. I would like to stress in this respect that the environmental crisis in which our planet finds itself today can only be resolved if local and regional authorities take the lead, alongside national governments and international organisations, in pursuing innovative approaches and favouring the change in citizens’ behaviour.

Tomorrow, the Standing Committee will hear communications by Vladimir Čečot, State Secretary in the Slovak Ministry of Interior, representing the Slovak Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers; by Miljenko Doric (Croatia), President of the Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Local and Regional Democracy, on the Sub-Committee’s work; and by Ignacio Niño, General Coordinator of “Madrid Global” (Spain), on the European Local Democracy Week (15 October 2008).

The Committee will also examine reports on the observation of elections in Kosovo (Serbia) and the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and will hold a debate on decentralisation in Spain, with the participation of Mayor of Malaga Francisco de la Torre Prados, the President of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces Pedro Castro Vazquez, and Rosa Torres, Councillor for Culture in the Regional Council of Andalusia.