Strasbourg, 1^st October 2010                                                                CDLR(2010)32

                                                                                        Item 4.4.5 of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

COO0PERATION PROGRAMMES

For information

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

This document presents recent information on the implementation of co-operation and assistance activities in the field of local and regional government reform in 2010.

Assistance and co-operation activities are an important component of the intergovernmental programme of activities of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy. At the 16th session of their conference (Utrecht, 16-17 November 2009), the European ministers responsible for local and regional government agreed to pursue legislative and policy assistance and co-operation programmes as one of the five strands of action in the Council of Europe[1] and instructed the CDLR to “support and encourage” them, “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”.

Comments and suggestions from delegations on specific activities or issues to be included in co-operation and assistance programmes would be welcome.

Action required

The CDLR is invited to take note of the information contained in the appendix and, where necessary, make comments and proposals on the activities envisaged or on their implementation.

Appendix

Assistance and co-operation activities in 2010 – an overview

Under its ordinary budget, the Council of Europe gave sustained support for local self-government reforms to Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. It also took part in finalising a Toolkit and in organising three high-level conferences.

New joint programmes with the European Commission have yielded major results in Serbia and Montenegro, and two new voluntary financial contributions from Sweden and Switzerland have made it possible to launch ambitious programmes in Ukraine and Albania respectively.

Co-operation with the UNDP (Bratislava regional centre) the OSCE and the LGI-OSI[2] has been strengthened and has made it possible to set up several activities: two high-level international conferences on public ethics and inter-municipal co-operation, a conference on the impact of the financial crisis on local and regional authorities and a new and ambitious inter-municipal co-operation toolkit.

Country-specific co-operation:

In Armenia, the government launched a new Armenia-Council of Europe action plan, including territorial reform, fiscal decentralisation and follow-up to the Law on Yerevan. The Council of Europe and Armenia are currently seeking further funding without which it will not be possible to implement this ambitious action plan.

In Georgia, two important laws, the Organic Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on Tbilisi, were appraised by experts. The Council of Europe also took part in the Batumi Conference and received a request from the Georgian Parliament to help it reform its legislation on local finances and financial equalisation.

In Moldova, the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the UNDP, provided technical assistance to the Joint Committee for Decentralisation in defining the number, terms of reference and structure of its working groups. It also drew up an action plan and a decentralisation strategy and provided experts for the working groups established. This activity was co-financed by LGI-OSI.

In Montenegro, the joint CoE-EU programme helped draft the amendments made to the law on local self-government, the law on the capital city and the law on spatial development (parliamentary procedure underway). Moreover, in the field of local government finances, the preparation of the two reports on the appraisal of local government finances in Montenegro and on land tax systems in Europe helped prepare major amendments to the law on local government financing and the law on land tax. Co-operation with the departments of the Deputy Prime Minister is aimed at providing detailed recommendations for the finalisation of the public administration reform programme, in particular its local dimensions.

In Serbia, the joint CoE-EU programme helped prepare the following laws:

•        Law on municipal police (and four related bylaws);

•        Law on local self-government staff (currently being drafted);

•        Law on administrative disputes;

•        Law on public property;

•        Law on the election of councillors;

•        Law on the state electoral commission;

•        Law on the voters’ register.

As regards activities financed by voluntary contributions, “Swiss Co-operation” provided 300,000 € for a two-year project to strengthen local self-government in Albania and the Swedish Agency for International Development Co-operation, SIDA, undertook to provide 1,320,000 € for a three-year programme in support of local self-government reforms in Ukraine.

The “Strengthening local and regional self-government bodies in Albania” programme , financed by Switzerland, which should run until 2011, covers three areas: inter-municipal co-operation, human resources management and local and regional planning.

The initial implementation of the programme in Ukraine financed by Sweden, which should also run until 2011, has been completed. Following an in-depth analysis of Ukrainian legislation in the light of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, a roadmap for the reform of local self-government has been drawn up. Assistance has also been provided in other fields (electoral code, inter-municipal co-operation, State programme for small towns and cross-border co-operation).

Co-operation between organisations:

A conference on “Ethics, transparency and good governance in the Balkans” was held in Budva (Montenegro) from 3 to 4 June 2010, in the light of the Utrecht Agenda on the establishment of good local and regional governance. The conference was held jointly by the Council of Europe and the OSCE and was attended by ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries of state, local and regional elected representatives and senior officials from South-East Europe. The recommendations of the conference, which were endorsed by all the participants, will be used by the States represented, the Council of Europe and the OSCE to prepare national and regional co-operation.

The “Intermunicipal Co-operation Toolkit” was finalised as under a trilateral co-operation programme involving the Council of Europe, the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS of the United Nations Development Programme and the LGI-OSI.

The Toolkit was presented at a regional conference on “Intermunicipal co-operation” held in Dubrovnik (Croatia) on 23-24 September by the Council of Europe and the Bratislava Regional Bureau of the UNDP, under the auspices of the Croatian government with the support of the OSCE, LGI-OSI and the associations of local authorities of Croatia. The Conference provided the opportunity for ministers, local elected representatives, senior officials and representatives of local authorities associations of South-East European countries and of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine to identify ways of improving intermunicipal co-operation. The Conference adopted a number of recommendations on developments in intermunicipal co-operation.

Finally, the conference on “Local Government responses to recession across Europe”, Strasbourg 11-12 October 2010, had the support of the LGI-OSI, particularly with regard to the updating of country-specific studies and the participation of experts from a number of member states.