28th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (24-26 March 2015)

Debate on Local and Regional Democracy in Norway

Speaking notes by Guilherme Pinto (Portugal, R, SOC), Congress co-Rapporteur

Thank you President,

Dear colleagues,

Mr. CADORET has already mentioned that the last visit to Norway took place in 2003 and focused on the state of regional democracy – resulting in Recommendation 141. At that time the Congress asked the Norwegian authorities, in discussions on future structures of territorial administration to:

• consult representatives of local and regional authorities

• widen the scope of reforms to include a genuine role for elected representatives in managing the local environment (para 30)

After the 2013 elections, the new government pledged further local government reform in Norway. (para 47) .

The discussion on the planned territorial reform first and foremost concerns municipalities, but it has widened to include the future of the counties. The political parties are divided. Some favour giving more power to this regional level whilst others (including the ruling Conservative and Progressive parties) prefer to do away with the regional level altogether and give municipalities wider powers and responsibilities.

The compromise is that the regional level will be maintained and evaluated at the same time as the local government reform.  (para 128)

 The overall effect would be a reduction in the number of local authorities and an increase their autonomy and powers. It is too early to say how the reforms may affect the regional level, . Nevertheless, the issue has remained a hot topic – the parliament itself has made a request to the government to give equal consideration to the tasks at regional level in the territorial reform. (para 131)

Lastly on this question of reform, we understood that the timetable would be something like this:

• Regional consultation processes to take place up to 2016

• In May this year the government will present to the Storting – which is the Norwegian Parliament - its proposals on new municipal responsibilities

 (para 48)

• By autumn this year (2015) municipalities must make their wishes known about amalgamations

• By Spring 2017 the proposed new structure  will be before the Storting

The debate is in full swing and as my co-rapporteur has already said, we are looking forward to hearing regular updates on the progress of these reforms from our Norwegian colleagues.

Now let me finally turn to our recommendations concerning both local and regional democracy in Norway. Although we have raised only 4 points here, 2 of them are fundamental:

• Firstly, to bring into line with Article 11 of our Charter of Local Self Government Norwegian legislation and judicial practice. Local authorities must have the right to judicial remedies against decisions by the state. (Rec 6b)

• The second is to re-think the administrative supervision carried out by governors on the own competences of local authorities and to regulate the powers of governors by law. (Rec 6c)

Now the first point we feel is easily remedied, simply by incorporating the principles of local self-government and local democracy into specific legislation. The principles are applied in Norway already so this should not be problematic.

Our final recommendation aims at ensuring that concomitant finances are provided for any new tasks delegated to local and regional authorities.

President, colleagues, I commend this report for your attention and I hope that you will adopt this draft recommendation. Thank you