Strasbourg, 18 January 2010                                                                CDLR-Bu(2010)2

Item 4 of the agenda

                                                                                                                      

BUREAU OF THE

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

FOLLOW-UP TO THE 16th SESSION OF THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE

Implementation of the Utrecht Agenda

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

The purpose of this document is to provide a basis for the Bureau to discuss at its meeting on 25 January 2010 the implementation of the Utrecht Agenda and the proposals to be submitted to the CDLR to that effect for its meeting in March 2010.

It may be recalled that at Utrecht Ministers voted to establish the priority to be given to the challenges the CDLR had identified in the field of local and regional democracy. The results of the vote, included in the Utrecht Agenda (part III of the Utrecht Declaration), were as follows:

1.    Managing the impact of the current financial/economic crisis

  1. Addressing the low level of democratic participation in public life at local and regional level
  2. Reducing the complexity and cost of the current system of local and regional government and enhancing its efficiency
  3. Enhancing the capacity for and quality of governance in local and regional communities or authorities
  4. Addressing the impact of demographic/migration trends
  5. Improving access to public services delivered at local and regional level
  6. Making it easier for local and regional authorities to co-operate across frontiers
  7. Addressing territorial inequalities between and within local and regional authorities
  8. Addressing the growing divide between rural and urban areas
  9. Strengthening social cohesion and acting against the increase of political and religious radicalisation
  10. Fighting corruption in local and regional authorities
  11. Addressing the growing impact of the digital divide on citizen participation
  12. Addressing the expansion of big conurbations at the expense of medium/small sized cities and villages.

In the Utrecht Declaration the Ministers request the Committee of Ministers to adopt annual programmes of activities for the Council of Europe in the years 2010 – 2013 enabling the full implementation of the Utrecht Agenda.

On 25 November 2009 the Committee of Ministers adopted the Programme of Activities for the year 2010 which includes the implementation of the Utrecht Agenda (for 2010) under Chapter III Democracy and Good Governance, Line of Action III.1.2. Local and regional democracy.


The Ministers at Utrecht also instructed their representatives in 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;

-       report to our next session”.

As regards the first indent -, the drawing up of a programme of activities - it is suggested that at this stage the CDLR should focus on activities in respect of the first seven challenges. To assist the Bureau, the Secretariat has drawn up a table that appears in Addendum I. This table shows the seven highest priority challenges, some first suggestions for possible outputs of activities (particularly ongoing activities and activities identified in the Utrecht Declaration (Parts I and II)) and the relevant items of the Council of Europe’s normative acquis. It is underlined that this table is entirely provisional, both as concerns its structure and as concerns its content. The Bureau is expected to give it an in-depth review and to give detailed guidance on the preparation of a table for the CDLR. In putting forward proposals the Bureau will also wish to bear in mind the instruction to “determine outputs that meet the highest possible level of support”.

Addendum II shows the results of the survey conducted among member States, linking the actions they have identified to the seven highest priority challenges. This information will enable the Bureau and CDLR to “take account of the priority given to actions at national and regional level”.


As concerns the second indent - the development of peer reviews as a new instrument of mutual learning between member States - the Bureau may wish to have an initial exploratory discussion and give guidance to the Secretariat for preparing a document for the CDLR on the topic.

As concerns the third indent - support and encourage the other strands of action, such as the Strategy, the Centre of expertise, the assistance activities and the European Local democracy Week - the Bureau may also wish to have an initial exploratory discussion on the steps the CDLR could take. The Bureau could give guidance to the Secretariat to prepare a document on this topic for the CDLR.

Action required

The Bureau is invited to:

-              to give Addendum I an in-depth review and to give detailed guidance on the preparation of a table for the CDLR;

-              to hold an initial exploratory discussion and give guidance to the Secretariat for preparing a document for the CDLR on the development of peer reviews;

-        to hold an initial exploratory discussion on the steps the CDLR could take to support and encourage the other strands of action (in the field of local and regional democracy) and to give guidance to the Secretariat to prepare a document on this topic for the CDLR.