Strasbourg, 8 February 2010 CDLR(2010)5
Item 7.3 of the agenda
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY
(CDLR)
PREPARATION OF THE 17th SESSION OF
THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Secretariat Memorandum
prepared by the
Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs
Directorate of Democratic Institutions
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Introduction
At the 16th session of their conference (Utrecht, 16-17 November 2009), the European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government accepted the invitation from their Ukrainian colleague to hold their 17th session in Ukraine in 2011 in order to review the implementation of the Utrecht Declaration, including implementation of the Kiviniemi Report and the Agenda for delivering good local and regional governance.
A date has not yet been agreed, but it is likely to be in the second half of 2011.
The time available for preparing the conference is therefore very short and the CDLR will have to give this question a relatively high priority in its work.
In accordance with the ministers’ decisions, the 2011 conference will serve to review the implementation of the Utrecht Declaration – including implementation of the Kiviniemi Report and the Agenda for delivering good local and regional governance.
Regarding the review of implementation of the Declaration, two sub-themes have in principle already been identified by the ministers: the overall situation as regards the impact of the economic crisis on local government and the responses to it (Utrecht Declaration, I(A)), and the measures taken to overcome obstacles to transfrontier co-operation (Utrecht Declaration, I(B)).
The follow-up measures to the various ministerial decisions form the subject of specific agenda items at this meeting and this will also be the case in future. The preparation of the “review conference” on the position of local government two years after the financial crisis of 2008 and one year after Utrecht and the launch of the survey of obstacles to transfrontier co-operation on the basis of Recommendation Rec(2005)2 of the Committee of Ministers are accordingly among the proposals for activities to be carried out in 2010-2011.
Other initiatives will be taken regarding the implementation of other parts of the Utrecht Declaration, in which Ministers Kiviniemi and Chaves have key roles to play.
At this stage, the CDLR’s attention is drawn to the fact that, to ensure smooth preparation of the 17th session, its theme and agenda items will need to be identified no later than the 46th meeting, ie in October 2010.
Furthermore, as the position of local government in a situation of financial and/or economic crisis is certain to be on the agenda of the next ministerial session and the “review conference” offers an opportunity to take stock and also to suggest topics for discussion and decision by the ministers in 2011, it seems appropriate to suggest that the meeting of the CDLR be held immediately after the “review conference” to enable the CDLR to take account of the results and any recommendations of the conference in identifying the theme(s) of the ministerial conference. In practice that would mean holding the conference on October 11-12 (morning) and the CDLR meeting on October 12 (afternoon), 13 and 14 (morning).
Action required
The CDLR is asked to agree on the proposed timetable for the preparation of the 17th session of the ministerial conference and, in particular, to fix the date of the review conference on the situation and financial position of local government in the face of the economic crisis (Strasbourg, 11-12 October 2010) immediately before its 46th meeting, so that its results and any proposals it might produce can be taken into account in the choice of the theme(s) of the 2011 ministerial conference.