Strasbourg, 8 February 2010                                                                CDLR(2010)13

                                                                                        Item 7.1.3 of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

FOLLOW-UP TO THE 16^th SESSION OF THE

MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE

CDLR's role in respect of other strands of activity

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the Directorate General of

Democracy and Political Affairs

Directorate of Democratic Institutions

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

In the Utrecht Agenda adopted as part of the Utrecht Declaration, the European ministers responsible for local and regional democracy after expressing satisfaction with the results achieved in the implementation of the Budapest Agenda and the way in which their initiatives for the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, the Strategy for innovation and good governance at local level and the European Local Democracy Week had been taken forward, considered it “essential” that they “collectively own and lead the full range of activities of the Council of Europe’s intergovernmental programme of activities in the field of local and regional democracy”.

Accordingly, having first identified the “challenges of particular common interest” to the member states, they further highlighted the five strands of action to be pursued in the Council of Europe^[1] and instructed the CDLR to

“-       draw up at the Committee’s meeting in Spring 2010 a concrete programme of activities for the years 2010-2013 that reflects the priority we have given to the challenges, takes account of the priority given to actions at national and regional level and determines outputs that meet the highest possible level of support;

-        take forward the development of peer reviews as a new instrument for mutual learning between our member States;

-        support and encourage the other strands of action, notably the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level, including the Twelve principles of good democratic governance at local level and the European Label of Good Governance at Local Level, capacity-building at local and regional level through the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, legislative and policy assistance and co-operation programmes and the European Local Democracy Week, in particular by examining their results regularly and by promoting them among governments, local and regional authorities, their associations as well as with potential partners and donors.”

As the issues mentioned in indents 1 (intergovernmental programme of activities for 2010 and beyond) and 2 (peer reviews) above are dealt with in separate documents, this documents focuses on the “support and encouragement” that the CDLR is invited to give to the other strands of Council of Europe’s action in the field of local and regional democracy.

An overview of the acquis and other activities being implemented in and for the benefit of member States in relation to the challenges highlighted by the ministers is given in the Addendum to this document.

Encouraging and supporting the other strands of the intergovernmental activities of the Council of Europe

As quoted above, the support and encouragement of other strands of action is to be done “in particular by examining their results regularly and by promoting them among governments, local and regional authorities, their associations as well as with potential partners and donors.”

Thus, without seeking to exclude possible other  ways through which the support and encouragement may be given, this document looks more closely at the aspects of “regular examination by the CDLR “ and “promotion”.

Regular examination by the CDLR

Currently the CDLR is kept informed of developments in the above mentioned fields at each of its meetings. Information documents prepared by the Secretariat form the basis for discussion and exchanges of information, as the case may be. The CDLR encourages the Secretariat to continue providing the assistance as requested and to promote actively the use of the tools it has developed through the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform. However, the CDLR does not discuss or express a  position as to the objectives to be pursued, the types of actions undertaken or  on geographical priority areas. The latter should probably change with the introduction of “regular examination” by the CDLR.

In order to give an initial follow up to the Ministers’ instruction, members will find that in each of the documents pertaining to the abovementioned issues (see items 10.1 – 10.4. of the agenda of this meeting of the CDLR) the Secretariat has suggested specific action by the CDLR.

It is suggested that in future, the separate examination and discussion of the various reports pertaining to “other” strands of action in the field of local and regional democracy could be brought under a single heading and could, when appropriate, become an item “for guidance” (rather than simply “for information”).

The CDLR could discuss this general approach at the meeting, as well as the points raised in the documents pertaining to the individual strands of action.

Promotion

The CDLR’s standing policy – reaffirmed by the Ministers – is to promote the acquis of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy and encourage and develop working methods that facilitate its implementation by member states (e.g. workshops with the participation of member states’ representatives, seminars with the participation of the Secretariat, legal and policy advice, capacity building programmes, publications, translations of documents).

As regards the promotion of these strands of action, the Ministers refer to “governments, local and regional authorities, their associations as well as to potential partners and donors” as the beneficiaries of this “promotional” activity.

In order to contribute to the collective reflection in the CDLR as to the best way of implementing this part of the Utrecht Agenda, the representatives of member states in the CDLR could address the following issues:

-        what are the (other) departments in the government that could be interested to know and use these the tools of and possibilities offered by the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy and how can they be reached?

-        how to make use of the existing institutional or informal channels of dialogue and communication between central and local/regional government (and their associations) in order to increase the awareness and use of these same possibilities?

-        what are the departments (agencies) involved in external (international) co-operation which could usefully be informed of the Council of Europe tools and programmes in the field of local and regional democracy – and the experience and know-how that goes with them – so that they can consider making the Council of Europe a partner in their external assistance policy?

Action required

The CDLR is invited to examine the general questions raised in this document pertaining to the regular review by the CDLR and promotion of the other strands of activity in the intergovernmental programme of activities pertaining to local and regional democracy. In preparation, members are invited also to collect relevant information/advice from colleagues in their national administrations with a view to contributing to the exchange of views.

The CDLR is also invited to take up, separately or as part of this discussion, the points identified in the other documents pertaining to the other individual strands of action.

Finally, the CDLR is invited to take any decisions it deems appropriate and, as the case may be, to give guidance to the Secretariat for the preparation of  this point for the next meeting.