Conference on Local Government in South-East Europe “South-East Europe – Meeting the Challenges”

Vienna, 6-7 November 2008

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

Mr Chairman,

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to address this Conference in my capacity as President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It is an honour to share with you the wealth of experience gained by the Congress in South-East Europe, which has been a geographical zone of priority for Congress’ activities ever since the guns of the Balkan wars went silent in the 1990s. Back then, our primary attention was focused on the countries of the former Yugoslavia, but we have since expanded its action to include the vast area of the Black Sea basin. Being from South-East Europe myself, I can personally attest to the many initiatives launched by the Congress in the past years, of which the Adriatic Euroregion, headquartered in Pula, Croatia, a country of the former Yugoslavia, and the Black Sea Euroregion, whose seat is in my home country of Romania, are just two examples.

It is also a pleasure to address you today because the Congress has been working in close partnership with many of you all these years – I speak about the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, a co-organiser of this Conference which has an observer status with the Congress; the Committee of the Regions, our partner within the European Union with which we have a cooperation agreement since 2005; and, of course, the Networks of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe, NALAS, our brainchild, if I may say so, a Congress’ initiative come true, which is another example of our action in this geographical area. I am delighted to be here with you, to be able to exchange views and share our ideas about the development of local self-government and local democracy in general, the democracy of our communities, which is our common cause and our common raison d’être.

The Congress has been closely involved with all issues represented as themes of today’s Conference – be it the challenges of municipal finances, of energy and the environment, or of urban planning and development. They may constitute greater challenges for South-East Europe, a region still recovering from the Communist past and the turbulence of post-Communist conflicts, but they are of no less relevance for all of us, for the entire Europe. We are in the same boat in seizing the opportunities presented by European integration after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the opportunities which paved the way for building a Europe of Cities and Regions, a Europe of Sustainable Communities.

Of course, our action for local democracy necessarily rests on the principles of local self-government set out in the European Charter of Local Self-Government, this Magna Charta of community rights, the cornerstone treaty which has just marked the twentieth anniversary of its entry into force last September. On this occasion, the President of our Chamber of Local Authorities launched an appeal to the remaining countries to ratify the Charter, and we are pleased that Montenegro has responded to this call and became the 44^th state to have done so. We hope that Andorra, Monaco and San Marino will follow suit soon and make the ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-Government universal for all the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

This Charter has been an integral part of many reform processes in central and eastern Europe, including South-East Europe, and it is our strong hope that it will be so in the reform still underway in some countries of the region. In this regard, we welcome the commitment expressed by the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the latest session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, in early October, that local self-government issues will be included in the process of constitutional reform in that country.

The Local Self-Government Charter deals specifically with the issues of local finances, which is on the agenda of this Conference, as one of the main principles of local democracy – that the transfer of responsibilities to local authorities must be matched with the necessary financial resources required to fulfil these tasks. Local finances have been the subject of the monitoring carried out by the Congress in member states, and I invite you in particular to study our monitoring reports and recommendations on South-East European countries – but also on other countries, some of which experienced particular problems with the question. Local finances have also been made the central point of an Additional Protocol to the Local Self-Government Charter, elaborated by the Congress.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Building upon the principles laid down by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the Congress has made a large number of recommendations and proposals over the recent years on a wide range of issues related to local and regional democracy, including those which are before us today. Through our Committee on Sustainable Development in particular, we have been delving into the questions of energy sources and use at local level, management of water resources, protection of the environment and biodiversity, provision of and access to public services in urban and rural areas, urban planning and development, cohesion within and between our communities and territorial cohesion in a broad sense – this list is long.

I could refer you to recommendations adopted by our Congress in the recent past, such as recommendations on responsible and sustainable consumption, on urban biodiversity, on adaptation to climate change, on a new energy culture, on the child in the city and reintegration of street children, on participation of young people at local and regional level, to name but a few. I could also mention our action in the social field, where we continue to address such issues as integration of migrants, urban security and neighbourhood policing, fight against human trafficking and against domestic violence, gender equality and protection of minorities, and access to social rights such as housing, health care and education, among others.

However, all these proposals and recommendations are based on the same philosophy   which is the basis of an integrated approach in our work – that of linking these different aspects into one single whole. We strongly believe that our goal today must be building communities centred on the citizen, cohesive communities which embrace all of its members, giving them a feeling of belonging, of being empowered to participate in the decision-making and in all aspects of community life, and providing them with a friendly environment. The economic and social well-being of our communities, of our citizens depends to a large extent on this user-friendliness, or member-friendliness of communities. This is why we see today a growing number of city networks promoting one or another aspect of this “friendliness” – Cities for Children, Cities for Local Integration Policy, Energy Cities which use innovative approaches for transport and energy, or the Berlin Process of cities for integrated youth policies in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods.

Our Congress is actively involved with these networks. But of course, our philosophy, as I have just said, is aimed at linking these different aspects together, moving from the separate notions of “political environment,” “economic environment”, “social environment” or “natural environment” to creating a new “community environment” – an environment which would balance economic development and ecological concerns, industrial zones and natural parks, historic sites and modern quarters, which would be family-oriented and child-friendly, and which take into due account urban biological diversity of today.

This philosophy found its reflection in the new European Urban Charter: a manifesto for new urbanity, which was adopted by our Congress at its plenary session at the end of May this year. Later today, the Director of the Congress, Mrs Antonella Cagnolati, will make a more detailed presentation of this new text, which lays down principles of modern urban community-building and governance and which would be, we hope, a source of inspiration for elected representatives in turning the vision of a New City into reality.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Whereas the proposals which I have just described constitute a conceptual basis for our action, one of the tools for their practical application is cooperation between cities and regions, cooperation between communities, including transfrontier cooperation. South-East Europe in particular – and, I would add, the Black Sea basin where South-East Europe meets South Caucasus and the “political” East of our continent – offers an enormous potential for transfrontier cooperation which can also serve as a sound alternative to conflict between states.

I have already mentioned a number of intermunicipal networks on our continent, which I hope will be joined by more cities in South-East Europe. One of the first Congress’ initiatives in this region was also setting up a network of local democracy agencies, LDAs, to restore trust and build confidence between war-torn communities through concrete projects on the ground, involving local authorities. This endeavour proved so successful that the network of LDAs expanded into South Caucasus, by opening its 12^th agency in Kutaisi, Georgia, and established the Association of Local Democracy Agencies, ALDA. A new agency was just launched in Shkodra, Albania, in October this year.

Another Congress’ initiative was to bring together associations of local authorities in South-East European countries into a cooperation network, which is now operating under the name NALAS, and whose President, Mr Tarzan Milosevic, I welcome here. Last but not least, the Adriatic Euroregion was established to coordinate cooperation at local and regional level around the Adriatic Sea, linking communities from both member and non-member countries of the European Union. It has been followed now by the creation of the Black Sea Euroregion, launched on 26 September this year at a conference in Varna, Bulgaria.

Both these Euroregions will serve as a cooperation framework and a launching pad for multilateral projects and initiatives between regions and municipalities, using also existing national, European and international financial mechanisms. The new Black Sea Euroregion will also complement the intergovernmental activities carried out by the Organisation for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, BSEC. Fourteen municipalities have already signed the Euroregions’ Constituent Act, which is open to local and regional authorities from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Lat but not least, at a time of the resurgence of territorial questions and disputes, the Congress has elaborated the European Charter of Regional Democracy, also adopted at the plenary session this year. It is our firm conviction that regional autonomy constitutes a counterbalance to separatism and an option for a negotiated solution, and, in this respect, the new Charter offers a large variety of flexible models for regional autonomy existing in Europe.

However, apart from being the first legal text laying down the tenets of regional democracy, the Charter reaffirms respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity as one of its main principles, and we in the Congress are convinced that it can serve as an inspiration for resolving questions relating to territories. The recent war between Georgia and Russia was set off exactly because of unresolved territorial issues, and we strongly believe that alternatives of peaceful settlement, with a possible broad autonomy at its basis, were not exhausted in the case of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Autonomous status may open the way for a comprehensive solution, of which the status of Gagauzia in the Republic of Moldova, which the Congress helped to negotiate, is a good example.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion, I would like to stress once again that it is time now to look at this panoply of existing proposals, recommendations and initiatives and link them together in one integrated and systemic approach. Moving on these different fronts – fostering a new community environment and building intermunicipal, interregional and transfrontier cooperation networks – we will moving closer to our goal, that of a Europe of Sustainable Communities – in South-East Europe as much as on the entire European continent.

Thank you.