Presentation of Prix Europa

Berlin, 25 October 2008

Speech by Ludmila Sfirloaga, President of the Chamber of Regions -  Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Council of Europe and its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in particular is a founding member and constant supporter of the Prix Europa. Its aim is to reward and encourage best practices and programmes among local media promoting democracy at the grassroots level, in our communities, for the benefit of our citizens.

In the Council of Europe 47 member states, we strongly believe that free and independent media at local and regional level is a key component of good democratic governance. It serves to promote greater transparency and accountability, to ensure high ethical standards of local politicians or disclose their wrongdoings, and prevent conflicts of interest.

Local media is also a vehicle for increased dialogue between citizens and their elected representatives, and plays a crucial role in ensuring free and fair conduct of local elections  - but also greater involvement of people in the political decision-making processes concerning them, at local level. In other words, local media serves as a public framework without which good democratic governance cannot be sustained and further developed.

Together, with and through the media, we can and we must not only make our democratic action more visible and understandable for the citizen, but also make sure that the citizen remains the central point of this action.

Local media is in the forefront of this noble task of making democracy accessible to the people, involving them and thus increasing the number of informed and motivated citizens in our communities.

This is exactly the reason why this Prize was created in 1987, in recognition of the importance of local media, radio and television in particular, for the good functioning of democracy at grassroots level. We have supported it ever since, and it is my pleasure to present Prix Europa to this year’s winner.