Council of Europe Conference of Ministers Responsible for Family Affairs

Vienna, Austria, 16-17 June 2009

Speech by Valerio Prignachi, President of the Committee on Social Cohesion, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Ministers,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to address this Conference on behalf of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

All of the themes and various aspects of public policies which will be discussed over these two days are of direct importance to local and regional authorities; however, the need to create family-friendly societies has particular resonance for us, not only because there is a clear link between people’s willingness to have children and the conditions of life and work in our communities, but indeed because this task, which cuts across all aspects of local governance, is at the very heart of our mission as territorial authorities.

Making communities family-oriented and providing support to families is a task for the local and regional level – the level where policies decided on by governments are put into practice in the most practical terms. Their success depends, to a great extent, on the conditions prevailing in our communities – not just living conditions such as housing, access to public services (in particular health-care and education), a healthy environment and possibilities for recreation, but also working conditions, including access to employment, a decent level of remuneration and family services provided by the employer.

I welcome the fact that the importance of the local and regional contribution to building family-friendly societies has been recognised in the draft Final Communiqué of this Conference, which encourages family- and child-friendly environments in local communities and respect for the needs of children in urban planning.

The Congress has been pursuing its ideas in this area for quite some time. Last year, our efforts resulted in the adoption of the European Urban Charter II: Manifesto for a new urbanity, which offers a modern vision and model of urban governance, planning and living, and sets out principles for building communities which are citizen- and family-oriented, compact, sustainable and cohesive.

In addition, in its recommendation entitled “Child in the City”, the Congress called on local and regional authorities to design the built environment from the child’s perspective and to develop compact cities where housing, schools, child-care facilities, shops and businesses are in close proximity – in other words, cities conducive to the implementation of the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights. In this context, the Congress actively participates in the Cities for Children network, which will have its 3rd annual conference in Stuttgart at the end of this month, and supports the idea of elaborating a European Charter of Child-Friendly Cities. 

It is our firm conviction that we need not only to encourage families who want to have and raise children, but we must also protect and cherish those children who already live in our cities – sometimes in terrible conditions.  This is why our texts on child-friendly cities have been complemented by our work on social reintegration of street children and protection of children against violence. We strongly believe that a violence-free and secure environment is a child’s fundamental human right and part and parcel of decent living conditions for them and their families. Local and regional authorities have a major role to play in building such an environment – for instance, implementing schemes to help families who fall into debt (a well-known trigger for violence) in this time of economic crisis, which was the subject of a recommendation by the Congress’ Committee on Social Cohesion last May.

Nor must we forget the needs of migrants and other vulnerable groups in our family policies. These groups are making a much-needed contribution to our otherwise worrying demographic outlook, but they often lack access to decent living and working conditions and services such as housing, health-care and education. The Congress has been particularly involved with the situation of migrants and their families, which also deserves a closer look at this Conference.

There are several other aspects of the work of the Congress that are of direct relevance to the subject at hand, some of which are also reflected in the draft Final Communiqué: our work on gender-mainstreaming and reflection on mainstreaming of children’s issues, our recommendations on integration and participation of young people at local and regional level, and our action on reconciliation of professional and family life.

On this last aspect, the Congress will be preparing a report on adjusting urban temporal policies to enable everyone to manage their social time in the way they wish while taking particular account of women’s needs in reconciling employment and family life. We recommend that public services, social and economic activities, the general organisation of urban life and use of collective areas be re-thought from the gender equality/ diversity perspective, given the changing nature of working hours and indeed the workforce.

Ladies and gentlemen, to sum up, I would like to stress once again the crucial role of local and regional authorities in creating family-friendly communities which must be taken on board in the elaboration of national policies that they will be asked to implement. I strongly hope this Conference, which I wish every success, will give due account to the local and regional dimension of our efforts for a family-friendly Europe.