Strasbourg, 17 March 2014                                                                  CDDG(2014)3

                   Item 4 of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE

(CDDG)

PRESENTATION OF THE ACTIVITY OF THE CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

For debate and action

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate of Democratic Governance

Democratic Institutions and Governance Department

This document is public. It will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy.

Ce document est public. Il ne sera pas distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire.

Introduction

This document (see appendix) contains a brief presentation of the activity of the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform in 2013 and of its priorities for 2014.

Created at the beginning of 2006 following the decision of the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw, 2005), the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform aims at building capacity in local authorities by the use of effective and impact-oriented programmes. Such programmes are inspired from new public management techniques and practice and make use of template forms and evaluation instruments (“tools”) and standard methodologies in order to implement practical projects (“country-specific programmes”) in co-operation with local, national and international stakeholders aiming at obtaining practical strengthening of the institutional capacity of local authorities (in particular reform of local regulations and practice).

The Centre is part of the Secretariat (Directorate of Democratic Governance, in the Directorate General for Democracy). It consists of a small team of staff and in its works it relies on a network of qualified national and European experts and institutions to provide policy and legal advice, capacity-building training and access to state-of-the art expertise in the form of tool-kits.

Since its creation it has worked in close co-operation with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy. Following the creation of the new CDDG committee, the Centre will maintain close working relations with it and its members as it was the case with the previous CDLR.

The Centre has an Advisory Board – one member of which is appointed by the CDDG – which acts as a framework for consultation between the Secretariat, CDDG and Congress on:

a)       the development and implementation of the Centre’s strategic priorities and plans;

b)       the lessons to be drawn from an evaluation of its achievements;

c)       the opportunities for co-operation both within the Council of Europe and with external partners.

The Centre produces an annual activity report that is first examined by the Advisory Board (next meeting scheduled on 29 April 2014) and then submitted to the Committee of Ministers.

Action required

The CDDG is invited to:

-      take note of the information contained in this document;

-      if so wished, ask questions and formulate suggestions for action;

-      appoint a representative to the Advisory Board of the Centre for 2014.

APPENDIX

THE CENTRE OF EXPERTISE IN 2013

The main activities in 2013 concerned the countries where large programmes funded by external donors through voluntary contributions are implemented. These are Albania, Ukraine and (starting from October 2013), Armenia.

A regional programme to analyse and deal with the impact of the financial crisis was implemented on a comparative basis in pilot local authorities in Greece, Portugal and Spain and was based on the Local Finance Benchmarking tool (updated to include the findings of the recent report on the impact of the financial crisis on local authorities in Europe). This programme was funded through a mix of ordinary budget and Open Society funds. Its implementation, in co-operation with the Congress and CEMR, was finalised in March 2014. However, a follow-up is envisaged, including an extension to Cyprus, who has expressed its interest in joining the programme.

Legal assistance is difficult to plan as it is very demand-driven, depends on (sometimes fluctuating) national priorities and is typically provided very shortly after the demand has been received. In 2013, such assistance was provided to Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.

The Centre continued to provide support to the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level. It also substantially helped with the organisation of the peer reviews in Albania and Armenia.

In 2013, the Centre of Expertise hosted one lab on Good governance at local level to be included in the World Forum for Democracy (Strasbourg, November 2013).

The following list sums up the capacity building and legal assistance activities which have been implemented in 2013.

Country-specific programmes in 2013

Capacity-building

Albania

Human resources management*

Inter-Municipal Co-operation*

Territorial-Administrative Reform*

Armenia

New programme started in October 2013 including both capacity-building and legal assistance activities (please see below). Capacity building concerns:

-      Best Practice Programme*

-      Public Ethics Benchmarking*

-      Human Resource Management*

 

Croatia

City Diplomacy

France

Cooperation with INET and IEP students in Strasbourg

Germany

Support to the implementation of the Strategy and ELOGE in Baden-Wurttemberg.

Hungary

Best Practice programme

Leadership Academy programme

Italy

Inter-Municipal cooperation

Adaptation of the Strategy benchmark to the Veneto Region.

Republic of Moldova

Best Practice programme

Montenegro

Leadership Academy programme

Romania

Promotion of ELoGE (road-testing by several cities)

Russian Federation

North-West Russia

“Promoting Good Governance principles in North-West Russia” in co-operation with the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Saint-Petersburg Centre of the Development of NGOs and the North-West Institute of Management of Russian Presidential Academy.

Cross-border Co-operation programme (Nota-Bene) in co-operation with the Nordic Council of Ministers

Chechen Republic

Seminars on municipal control and territorial planning for Chechen LGUs.

Spain

Support to the implementation of the Strategy and ELOGE in co-operation with French local authorities

Implementation of the Public Ethics Benchmarking in co-operation with Congress

Switzerland

Best Practice Programme

Summer School on Transparency and Public Ethics (including a ToT on the Public Ethics Benchmark)

Turkey

Leadership Academy programme

Ukraine

Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme*

Best Practice Programme*

Performance Management Programme*

Local Finance Benchmarking*

Leadership Academy Programme*

Local Government Association Programme

Support to the implementation of the Strategy

Other

Kosovo[1]

Best Practice programme

* Programmes implemented with financial support from the EC or from member States

Legal Assistance

Albania

Proposals for improvement of the legal infrastructure for Human Resources Management.  A national assessment of local government units’ capacity to implement the new law on civil service

Assistance on the drafting of the new law on Territorial Administration Reform as well as for improving the legislative frame for Inter-Municipal Co-operation

Drafts for secondary legislation on the basis of the (new) law on civil servants with particular focus on local government administration

Peer review on territorial reform

Armenia

Nearly all major reforms and legal acts in the field of local self-government have been accompanied by the provision of legal assistance and expertise by the Centre including the Basic law on Local Self-Government, Law on the Capital Yerevan and Draft law on financial equalisation (not yet adopted), law on Citizen participation in local public life (adopted by the National Assembly of Armenia in June 2013).

A peer review on territorial reform was organised.

Georgia

An opinion on the document entitled “The Main Principles of the Strategy on Decentralization and Self-Government Development of the Government of Georgia for 2013-2014”. An appraisal report on the draft Local Self-Government Code of Georgia

Republic of Moldova

Evaluation of the proposed amendments to the local public finance law, sectorial strategies, and the local public finances system

Romania

Legal assistance to support the decentralisation and regionalisation process. A workshop “Regionalization in Romania: challenges and opportunities”

Ukraine

Assistance on the local self-government reform and territorial organisation of power, revision of the Constitution of Ukraine on LSG-related issues, draft laws “On the Right of Territorial Communities for Amalgamation” and “On Co-operation of Territorial Communities”

A platform for discussion on conclusions of Recommendation 348 (2013) of the CoE Congress of Local and Regional Authorities “On local and regional democracy in Ukraine”

Development and publication of tools in 2013

In 2013, only the development one new tool, on City Diplomacy, to be prepared based on the piloting of and in co-operation with the municipalities of Dundee (UK) and Zadar (Croatia), was launched. 

The toolkit on Human Resource Management was published. In view of limited resources, several toolkits were only published in electronic format and/or are only available in English.

PROSPECTS FOR 2014

The ambitious programmes implemented in Albania and Armenia will continue in 2014. The programme in Ukraine is supposed to end on 31 March 2014. Despite clear needs, the focus on decentralisation put by the new government and the interest of donors to continue to fund such activities, possible follow-up is on hold pending discussion of revised priorities for Ukraine.

The capacity-building programme for Malta started in 2014 and should last 3 years. It will consist of five different programmes (National Training Strategy, Best Practice, Performance Management, Leadership Academy, Strategy and ELoGE).

The Local Finance Benchmarking programme will continue in Spain and Greece and be extended to Cyprus. There seems to be interest also in proposing it on a regional level.

Switzerland has expressed an interest to fund the legal assistance programme proposed for Georgia.

An ambitious and very practical Human Resource Management programme is pre-approved for funding by the European Commission and could start as soon as the Serbian government adopt the draft Law on Salaries for Civil Servants.