FIRST WORLD CONFERENCE ON CITY DIPLOMACY

Friday, 13 June 2008

Speech by Onno VAN VELDHUIZEN, Head of the netherlands delegation, Rapporteur about the city diplomacy

Yesterday and this morning, we discussed and learned a lot on the role of local governments in conflict prevention, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction; but we still have a long way to go in order to become really implemental in this field.

A European organization that has already done a great deal of work in this area is the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

As vice-president of the Congress and rapporteur on city diplomacy, it is my privilege to tell you more about this work .

For those who do not know this organization and to avoid the misunderstanding: the Council of Europe is the pan-European organization of 47 European countries (not to be mixed up with the European Union of 27 countries). Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

Within this organization, the Congress of Local and Regional authorities provides a forum where local and regional elected representatives can discuss common problems, pool their experience and express their views to governments; it advises the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on all aspects of local and regional policy and co-operates closely with national and international organisations representing local and regional government.

Furthermore, the Congress prepares regular country-by-country reports on the state of local and regional democracy in all the Council’s member- and applicant states, and monitors, in particular, how the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government are being implemented.

This very important European Convention, that has become the authoritative international treaty in this sphere, is paving the way to attain a broader legal recognition of the role of local governments. It is also the basis of the World Charter of Local Self-Government, that UCLG tries to get adopted by the United Nations.

After this short introduction, now the answer to the question: how does the Congress answer to requests from local governments from member states that claim that local democracy in their country is being challenged?

Mr Demirbas, mayor of Sur in Turkey, who is the second speaker of this session, will give you a concrete example of the way the Congress proceeded in his case. I will try to describe the Congress procedure in more general terms.

The Congress has two kinds of monitoring missions in its member-states: the regular monitoring that is used to prepare the country-by-country reports and assesses in general the state of local and regional democracy. It looks in particular at the implementation of the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Every member-state is being monitored at regular intervals.

The monitoring that we want to look at in this session is the second type of monitoring: it is decided by the Bureau of the Congress at the request of a local or regional government member or an association that claims that local democracy in its country is being challenged.

The Congress does not have a strict protocol for this type of action but generally, the procedure is the following:

The written request is examined by the Bureau of the Congress (which is composed of the presidents and vice-presidents of the Congress);

If the request is considered as admissible, the President of the Congress makes in first instance an inquiry into the matter by asking written questions to the responsible (national, regional or local) government.

If the answers are not sufficient enough, the Bureau sends a fact finding mission to the local or regional government that has entered the claim. The mission is always composed of at least two ( elected) representatives of the Congress – the rapporteurs - , assisted by Congress staff members.

During the two or three days of the mission, the rapporteurs meet representatives of national (or regional) government, at the highest possible level, and all other interested parties.

Their mission report is then discussed in the Bureau, which decides to draw up a recommendation or to go further with the monitoring (by example enlarged monitoring).

The draft recommendation is finally discussed and adopted by the plenary Congress.

The final recommendation is sent to the responsible tier of government.

As follow-up to the recommendation, the Congress invites the responsible Minister or Authority to come to a session and explains how he/she has implemented the recommendations.

During all these fact finding missions, the European Charter of Local Self-Government and also other treaties or recommendations of the Council of Europe serve as reference.

This is very important: the Congress does not draw conclusions out of the blue. The “acquis” of the Council of Europe provides the basis and is the starting point to engage discussions with the stakeholders.

If the national government is involved, it is reminded of its obligation towards treaties that it has ratified (in the first place the European Charter of Local Self-Government but also: European Convention for the protection of human rights; framework convention for the protection of national minorities; European Charter for regional or minority languages; convention on the participation of foreigners in public life at local level….). Exchange of letters and visits are a way to renew the dialogue with governments.

When local and regional governments only are involved (by example in a dispute on the use of the official language), the procedure is quite similar: conflicting parties are reminded of the content of treaties, charters or simple resolutions that they have agreed with.

To conclude: in its monitoring activities, the Congress is actively contributing to conflict prevention and conflict solution, mostly between local and central government. Its very strong asset is the acquis of the Council of Europe and in particular the European Charter of Local Self-government. It has an official mandate of the member-states to intervene to investigate alleged breaches to the Charter. This treaty and the status of the Congress as the local and regional pillar of the Council of Europe are the indispensable ingredients for the success of its monitoring activities.

At the same time, the Congress (and the Council of Europe in general) does not have the legal instruments to enforce the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Its work has more the character of (city) diplomacy, re-establishing dialogue between the parties concerned and diffuse potentially explosive situations.

As Keith Whitmore , Chair of the Institutional Committee of the Congress, stated in its opening speech:

“the Congress has been doing City Diplomacy for many years without realising it.”

It will continue to work with UCLG in order to further develop and promote this concept.