1st EURASIA LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CONGRESS - “Development of Cooperation Strategies”

Istanbul, 15–17 November 2008

2nd Session: Reorganisation and Reform Practices

Speech by Ulrich Bohner, Secretary General - Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great privilege for me to take the floor today before the first Congress of European and Asian local governments, which, I hope, represents the birth of a new cooperation network linking together local communities of our two continents. I am sure such a network will take its prominent place among the many already existing networks of municipalities in which the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which I represent as its Secretary General, is actively involved.

We see cooperation between cities and regions, much as cooperation of local and regional authorities within their national and international associations, as an important tool for ensuring the practical application of principles and norms of local self-government drawn from the European experience over decades. In fact, reorganisation of territorial administration and reform of local self-government, which is the theme of this session, are needed to first and foremost for the benefit of the citizens, to bring the existing legislation and its practical implementation into line with these principles and norms, with European standards of local democracy of which the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the primary watchdog.

The Congress is the only European body tasked with monitoring the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and therefore the state and development of territorial democracy on our continent. The Charter is the cornerstone international treaty for local democracy, which identified the rights of local communities, to be protected by law, and set out the main principles of local self-government. One of them, the principle of subsidiarity, stipulates that responsibilities for public services must be transferred to the level where they can be delivered most efficiently, the level closest to the citizen. This principle underpins decentralisation processes in Europe today and allowed for the transfer of a wide range of competences from national governments to regional and local level.

The Self-Government Charter also stipulates that local authorities must be endowed with financial resources sufficient to carry out their functions and fulfil their tasks, implying that any transfer of competences and responsibilities should be accompanied with the transfer of matching funds, or the possibility for local authorities to raise their own. The capacity of local communities to have their own finances is recognised as a right which must also be protected by law.

Among other rights enshrined in the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the protection of which often necessitates reform processes in Council of Europe member states, I would also name the right of local communities to manage their own affairs through democratically elected bodies.

Compliance with these principles, especially in administrative practice, while keeping abreast with the evolving needs and expectations of our citizens, requires constant adjustment in national legislation and its implementation, sometimes calling for a broad reform or even amendments to the Constitution. We witnessed the largest reform processes in central and eastern European countries following the fall of Communist regimes, as they were bringing their constitutions, laws and legal systems into conformity with European democratic standards. These reforms dealt necessarily with local and regional democracy and self-government issues, including territorial organisation and administration, central-regional-local relations, self-government structures, competences and finances, methods of forming self-government bodies, and many others.

All these issues are subject to monitoring by our Congress, which provides expert assessment of draft national laws and country-specific or even case-specific recommendations to national governments and local and regional authorities. These recommendations and legal expertise helped many Council of Europe member states with their self-government reforms.

I could mention among recent examples local self-government laws in the Entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were vague and at variance with the Charter and needed concretisation; our work on federalism in the Russian Federation, resulting in a number of new federal laws which led to the recent municipal reform, nearly doubling the number of municipalities; our assessment of sectoral laws in Croatia, dealing with competences of “large towns” and “normal towns”; our ongoing work on regionalisation in Ukraine, or recommendations on regional structures in Greece; or our recent recommendations on constitutional reform in Turkey.

Through its monitoring, the Congress identifies problems with local self-government in particular countries and, where appropriate, recommends to the responsible authorities concrete steps to reform their territorial structure. For example, in some countries many municipalities were so small that they could not properly perform their functions; it was recommended to enlarge their size and reduce the total number of municipalities. A similar reform was carried out in Turkey; in the Russian Federation, as I have just mentioned, the process went in the opposite direction.

Over the years, the Congress has gained considerable experience and knowledge of various models of local and regional self-government, various methods and practices of the Charter’s implementation, and various tools for improving local democracy. Our monitoring activities take the form of regular visits, resulting in country-specific reports, recommendations and resolutions, followed by exchanges with government officials on their implementation, as well as the form of fact-finding missions, inquiring into particular cases of alleged violations of the Charter, and observation of local and regional elections. We have been relying in our monitoring exercises, on the one hand, on the Group of national independent experts for the legal backing of the Charter’s use and, on the other hand, national and European associations of local and regional authorities, using them as an “early warning system” in their respective countries and as partners in the entire monitoring process, including its initiation, preparation of reports and recommendations, and follow-up.

Associations of local and regional authorities, whose establishment is provided for in the European Charter of Local Self-Government, play a crucial role in prompting and following through self-government reforms in their respective countries, and in ensuring the application of the Charter and its principles, of European standards in general, both within local communities and by national governments. The Congress involves national associations and their networks in having national issues and problems brought to its attention and in accompanying the Congress’ response as important partners for reform practices in their countries and on Congress’ behalf. This is why we are actively supporting and contributing to the creation of such associations, being instrumental in the setting up of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG), three national associations in Azerbaijan, or the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS).

Apart from its traditional monitoring, the Congress watches over reform processes in the field of local democracy in Europe as a stakeholder and active partner in the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform. This Centre was set up by the decision of the Warsaw Summit of Council of Europe Heads of State and Government in 2005 to serve as a pole of excellence and a clearing-house for innovative ideas, approaches and practices. Since its inception, the Centre has elaborated the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at local level, approved by Council of Europe Ministers of Local and Regional Government at their Conference in Valencia, Spain, in 2007, and adopted by the Committee of Ministers in early 2008. The Congress is actively involved in implementing the Strategy, which we see as complementary to the Lisbon Strategy of the European Union, but evidently with a larger scope.

The Centre has also produced two toolkits intended for associations of local authorities: a toolkit on capacity-building for local government, explaining our approach to capacity-building and containing proposals for national training strategies, leadership development and service provision; and a toolkit “Towards a modern Local Government Association”, produced in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and dealing with various aspects of the functioning of such associations.

From national associations to national governments, we will now be taking our action further. The Congress is currently revising its procedure to ensure compliance by member states with its recommendations – in other words, the follow-up involving exchanges of views with government officials and the feedback from national associations – and we continue to push for the European Charter of Local Self-Government to be integrated into national legal systems, which is the best assurance of its implementation and protection of the rights of communities and their authorities. In some countries, this may imply additional reform of legislation and practice.

I should also add that beyond Europe, the Charter was taken up by the United Nations and inspired the guidelines on decentralisation and the strengthening of local authorities, adopted by the UN-Habitat in 2007. Thus, through the Expert Group on the implementation of the guidelines, the Congress is cooperating with the UN in promoting decentralisation and local self-government, and reform processes accompanying it, on the global scale as well.  

To sum up, this is the Congress’ role in ensuring that reorganisation and reform practices concerning local self-government serve the actual needs of our communities and conform to the principles and standards in the field of local democracy. Any reform should contribute to our overall goal of building territorial communities which empower citizens to take control of their destiny in the cities and regions that they inhabit. This is the future which we want to share with our neighbours in Asia.

We also promote transfrontier cooperation and Euroregions of a new type, such as the Black Sea Euroregion created two months ago, with the initial participation of five countries – we are hoping to enlarge it, with other cities and regions joining in.

Preserving borders is important in Europe, but transfrontier regions are an excellent example of how to build bridges between Europe and Asia. Let us not be afraid to continue our work in this direction.

Thank you.