1077^th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies

Strasbourg, 24 February 2010

Statement by President a.i. Ian Micallef Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Just a month ago the Secretary General presented to you his political vision and his proposals for a reform of our Organisation.

I have read these proposals with great interest, and taken note of the strong support that he received from your delegations. I would like to begin today by making it clear that I intend to do everything within my power to ensure that the Congress does not stand apart from this reform.

We are embarking on our own thorough review of our activities and structures.  In the coming months, we will implement a programme of changes that will ensure that the Congress plays its proper role in focussing its activities on the core values of our Organisation and where the Congress activities are of added value. By doing so, I am confident that we will be moving in the spirit and in line with the Secretary General's reform programme.

Let me remind you of the current situation. When I addressed you last September, I spoke a lot about the monitoring activities of the Congress. 2010 will see the completion of our first cycle of monitoring. This means that every country will have been monitored at least once.  But to be frank I am not satisfied with this. Monitoring has to be regular if it is to be effective. I believe that we need to increase the rhythm, pace and extent of our monitoring missions.

This year, with the agreement of the President of the Congress Institutional Committee, I have proposed that we monitor local and regional democracy in 15 member states.

This is three or four times what we have been doing up to now.  If we keep up this momentum, then each country will be monitored at least every five years, which will inject a sense of continuity into this activity and enable us to follow developments in each country in a thorough way and engage in a true political dialogue with the countries concerned.

Such political dialogue is what our monitoring activities are all about. Our aim is to examine together how local and regional democracy can be further developed in the country concerned.

I have to tell you that I do not believe that these activities should be limited to the production of reports and recommendations. We need to be more concrete. I believe that the Congress should be looking to deepen this cooperation in the form of specific on the spot activities, working with the governments concerned to reinforce local democracy and address situations which are highlighted in the country reports.

Monitoring missions are not easy to organise and they take a large amount of time and resources, but monitoring the Charter is one of the key responsibilities entrusted to the Congress by the Committee of Ministers in its 2007 Statutory Resolution. We were asked to produce regular country reports. This year, for the first time, we have a realistic perspective of achieving this.

As I said earlier, 44 of our member states have ratified the European Charter of Local Self-Government so far. But I believe that the Charter is an essential legal instrument for all our member states, large or small  and I am seeking  to persuade the authorities of the three countries who have not yet raitified the Charter to consider doing so. That is why, earlier this month I was in Andorra to discuss this with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We had a very positive discussion and the outlook is very encouraging. I take this opportunity to thank the Permanent Representation of Andorra for all their help in organising this meeting.

Another aspect of our monitoring activities is the observation of local and regional elections. We are continuing our work in this respect. At next month's session we will be examining the report of our December election observation in Azerbaijan, where we were the only international observers. We are in the process of preparing an observation mission to Georgia, where we have been invited to observe the local elections on 30 May.

Our other preoccupation is with human rights. We are turning our attention to how human rights can be improved at the local level.

I am convinced that there can be no democracy without respect for human rights. Last week, in Utrecht, our Institutional Committee approved a report on "The role of local and regional authorities in the implementation of human rights", which will now be debated at next month's session. This report proposes that, during its monitoring activities, the Congress also take account of the respect for human rights at local level.  It also encourages local and regional authorities to promote human rights through awareness-raising initiatives and local and regional action plans.

In this respect we are particularly interested in the experiences of several member states with local and regional ombudsmen.

Democracy, human rights, the rule of law: these are the core missions that are guiding the reforms that we have begun in the Congress and which I believe will result in a renewed and more dynamic institution that very much reflects the changes that you the Committee of Ministers wish to see in the Organisation as a whole and which the Secretary General has begun to introduce.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chairman

During our October session, we held a debate on youth participation, and coupled this with a debate by young people themselves, from a children's council. I mention this to underline that we very much welcome the new protocol on participation that was opened for signature in Utrecht.  We have been trying to push the citizen participation issue up the political agenda for many years and we are very pleased that so many states chose to sign the new protocol in Utrecht, pleased too that Norway has already ratified it. We shall be using every opportunity to urge other member states to follow Norway's example.

I am pleased that we had a strong delegation at Utrecht. I was struck by the fact that, in addition to our own delegation, there were a number of Congress members present in the government delegations.

We are pleased with the results of Utrecht. We welcome and support the Reference framework for regional democracy. Although it was not our original choice for such a text, we are realists. We accept that there is no consensus for a legally binding text at the regional level in the way that there is at the local level. However, despite this difference of opinion, we contributed to the drafting of this document and I can assure you that we will fully support it and play our part to ensure that this becomes a key text in this area.

As is often the case in political assemblies, the Congress likes to pursue its agenda with a certain enthusiasm. The defence of a position can sometimes lead to friction. On the other hand, the Congress is fully able to understand that governments have other opinions and act accordingly.  So there should be no misunderstanding in this respect. We are committed to pursuing our cooperation with all the instances of this Organisation, first and foremost with your committee, and in the same spirit with your sub-committees, notably the CDLR. This is why we support the initiative of Minister Kiviniemi. We were pleased to invite her to discuss her ideas with the Congress Bureau in Helsinki and it is my hope that that we will soon have an opportunity to continue this valuable dialogue.

Sharing the same values and priorities, it is our intention to cooperate in an atmosphere of constructive political dialogue.

Finally, a few words about our forthcoming session. I have already alluded to the debates that we are planning on human rights and on the elections in Azerbaijan. We shall also be looking at regional democracy in Switzerland, the Utrecht Declaration on good local and regional governance, the implications of the Copenhagen Summit on climate change and the creation of the Regional and local assembly for the Euro-Mediterranean area, better known as ARLEM.

We shall also be holding a debate with the Secretary General, which will be an opportunity to look closely at the contribution that we the Congress can make to his reforms.

The election of our own Secretary General is scheduled to be held on the first day of the session, on 17 March. As you know, we were intending to elect a new Secretary General in October last year to replace Ulrich Bohner. However, the selection process was delayed when the Congress Bureau failed to agree to a shortlist of candidates. This was resolved when we met last month in Lugano.  Chairman, the air of your country invigorated the members of our Bureau, and they wisely approved a list of three candidates.

Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,

I have presented the future of our Congress. I hope that I have made it clear that, far from seeing this future as being on the periphery, we fully intend to play our part and to be a real driving force for the Council of Europe. We have the will and the determination to play a key role in bringing about the improvements that you are seeking in this Organisation.

We will enter this new era together. We are fully prepared and we are putting the priority on our added value, by doing what others are not able to do.

Thank you for your attention.