Keith Whitmore: “Local authorities can often carry out actions that central authorities cannot”

Keith Whitmore (United Kingdom), National Co-ordinator of European Local Democracy Week” (ELDW), welcomes the growing success of this occasion. Each year in October, the events organised in the European countries acquaint the citizens more closely with the actual work of the local and regional elected representatives. The 2010 Week, staged under the theme of “Climate change and sustainable communities'', will be the means of initiating debates and encounters between populations and their representatives.

Interview: 3 August 2010

Question: You have backed the ELDW initiative from the beginning, since the launch in 2007 by the Congress. How does its 2010 version look?

Keith Whitmore: I confess my pride in its success, which has increased from year to year since 2007. Last year, over European municipalities participated and the figure should be exceeded this year. In 2009, the most active towns in connection with the Week were Belgian, particularly the Brussels Capital Region, as well as Ukrainian including Odessa. Feedback from the citizens is generally positive, all the more because we organise encounters and meetings with them on federative themes. In October 2010 the theme will be climate change and how local and regional authorities can address it. Young people are particularly aware of these climatic and environmental issues and must therefore be shown what municipalities are doing to meet the challenges, for example in the fields of transport, energy or recycling of waste. It is also a good opportunity to have more meaningful dialogue with them. The role of ELDW is not as such to be concerned about environment, but clearly to show the citizens the role performed by local elected representatives in that area, as in others!

Question: What does ELDW contribute to local and regional democracy in Europe?

Keith Whitmore: Primarily, of course, bringing citizens and local authorities closer together, but also encouraging them to co-operate more at the European level, as the problems are often the same from one country to another. ELDW reminds European local elected representatives that we are all part of the same “family”. Besides, local authorities can often carry out actions that the central authorities cannot, inter-community dialogue included. For example, ELDW encourages the local elected representatives and the citizens of the Brussels municipalities to speak with each other to better effect, across the political divisions between the French and Flemish communities. Often local politicians can go where there is no entry for national politicians! I might add that well before ELDW the Congress, in more dramatic circumstances, was also the first to strive for the restoration of local dialogue in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Question: The Congress is currently working on a reform of its structures. What do you think of this project?

Keith Whitmore: I am happy with this development, because the Congress absolutely had to refocus itself on its core activities namely promotion and monitoring of local democracy in Europe. This work has suffered from the undue diversification of the Congress for some years past, and it was high time to remedy that situation. This year for instance we have scheduled some fifteen monitoring visits; it is the first time for 12 years that we shall be making so many, and we must keep going in that direction.