Strasbourg, 9 February 2010                                                                  CDLR(2010)7

                                                                                         Item 10.1 of the agenda

 

 

 

 

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OTHER ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF

LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

 

Council of Europe Strategy

for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Once it had been endorsed by the European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government at the Valencia Conference (15 and 16 October 2007), the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 26 March 2008.

 

As a result, it became a full Council of Europe activity, to which all member states were invited to subscribe.

 

At European level, the implementation of the Strategy is supervised by the Council of Europe’s Stakeholders’ Platform while at national level it will be managed by national stakeholders’ platforms, which will be set up within states as they join.

 

At the 16th session of their Conference in Utrecht (16 and 17 November 2009), the European Ministers declared themselves “satisfied” with the work on the Strategy and with the potential for the twelve principles “to offer a coherent guide to our common aim of improving the quality of local governance”.

 

Having agreed that, within the Council of Europe, they would continue to work in five areas of action including the Strategy, they instructed the CDLR to “support and encourage the other strands of action, notably the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level, … 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” (Utrecht Declaration, section III(C)).

 

Some preliminary thoughts about how the CDLR might go about this task are contained in document CDLR(2010)13 (item 7.1.3 of the agenda). The information report appended to this document provides an overview of the implementation of the Strategy and invites the CDLR to give its views on the idea of asking the LR-GG to give an opinion on the planned procedures for the implementation of the Strategy and the Label.

 

 

Action required

 

The CDLR is invited to take note of the appended information report and give its views on the proposal made therein to consult the LR-GG on the suggested arrangements for steering the Strategy and awarding the Label at national level.

 

 

Appendix

 

Progress on implementation of the Strategy

 

In 2009, several missions took place in countries which had shown interest in the Strategy or were actively involved in its implementation. Some of these missions were carried out by the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for the Strategy, Mr Giovanni Di Stasi, some by one of the staff of the Department of Local and Regional Democracy and Good Governance and some by both. Among the countries which were visited were Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.

 

The highly stimulating nature of the Strategy was highlighted at all of these meetings. It was clearly stated that, although the Strategy and its twelve principles were supposed to apply to local and regional authorities and their elected representatives, it was not binding in nature. The Label of Good Governance will be awarded to candidate authorities making an express request to take part in the self-evaluation and award procedure, as defined by the Council of Europe.

 

A new stage in the implementation of the Strategy began at the end of the year. The implementation of the Label of Good Governance, which is one of the key components, albeit not the only one, of the Strategy, began in December and is scheduled for completion in 2010.

 

-          Launch of testing of the Label’s tools.

 

At the 3rd meeting of the Stakeholders’ Platform on the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level in Strasbourg on 19 June 2009, it was decided that testing would take place between late 2009 and early 2010. This timetable was kept to.

 

As planned in the procedure presented at the Platform meeting, the project leaders in the countries in which the Strategy was being implemented were asked to provide a list of the municipalities wishing to test the benchmark. In some other countries, municipalities were identified and approached individually. The deadline by which municipalities were required to send in their comments on the benchmark was 1 March 2010.

 

The municipalities involved in testing were as follows:

 

Belgium (Wallonia)

 

          Ath (Hainaut)

          Fleurus (Hainaut)

          Mons (Hainaut)

          Sambreville (Namur)

          Soignies (Hainaut)

          Tournai (Hainaut)

 

Belgium (Bruxelles-Capitale Region)

 

          Jette

          Woluwe-Saint-Lambert

 

Bulgaria

 

          Shumen

Varshets

Mezdra

Dolni Dabnik

Karlovo

Dobrich

Strumyani

Vratsa

Svishtov

Pravets

Svilendrag

Sandanski

Lovech

 

France

 

          Bordeaux (Gironde)

          Bricquebec (Manche)

Lille (Nord) (to be confirmed)

          Nantes (Loire Atlantique) (to be confirmed)

          Nevers (Nièvre)

          Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)

          Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine)

         

Italy

 

            Città di Castello (Umbria)

          Fiumicino (Lazio)

          Reggio nell’Emilia (Emilia-Romagna)

          Riccia (Molise)

 

Netherlands

 

The Ministry of the Interior, working in partnership with the VNG (the Association of Netherlands Municipalities), is currently studying the Council of Europe’s benchmark, comparing it with the mechanism that already exists in the Netherlands. Testing in the Netherlands will make it possible to check whether benchmarks already established in the country concerned can be combined with the Council of Europe’s benchmarks. As a result, testing here will be different to the work in other countries.

 

Norway

 

          Harstad (Troms)

Gjesdal (Rogaland)

Kristiansand (Vest-Agder)

Sørum (Akershus)

 

Ukraine

 

          Boryspil (Kyiv province (oblast))

          Chernihiv Provincial Council (Chernihiv province)

          Mykolaiv (Mykolaiv province)

          Nejin (Chernihiv province)

          Odessa (Odessa province)

          Pryluky (Chernihiv province)

          Slavutych (Kyiv province)

          Ukrainka (Kyiv province)

 

Negotiations are still under way with the following authorities and should mean that they will take part in testing in March and April:

 

Innsbruck (Austria)

Le Havre (France)

Badalona, Pinedar de Mar and San Sebastian (Spain).

 

-          Results of testing.

 

As announced at the third meeting of the Stakeholders’ Platform, the results of the testing and the revised benchmark will be submitted to the Platform for appraisal and approval. The aim is to have benchmarks in June 2010 which can be used to launch the first award procedure for the Label in the second half of the year.

 

Once the benchmarks are validated and the award procedure is approved, it will be for the states to assert or confirm their commitment to the Strategy and, in particular, to setting up the bodies and procedures for the award of the Label.

 

The Secretariat intends to continue its work of awareness-raising, information and explanation so that this stage can proceed as harmoniously as possible.

 

-          Procedures for the award of the Label and management structures in the individual countries.

 

A proposal concerning the organisation of the bodies responsible for awarding the Label and the processing of candidatures for the Label was prepared by the Secretariat and is currently being assessed by the Directorate of Legal Advice and Public International Law to ensure that it complies with European law. It will then be subject to broader consultation involving the pilot countries and could be discussed by one of the CDLR’s committees of experts – most probably the LR-GG – so that it can give its opinion.

 

Some of the details of procedures still have to be looked into, however, particularly the timescales involved. For instance, the length of the validity of the Label has not yet been clearly established. Does the Label have to have a “life span” and, if so, how long should it be? Furthermore, does the main national body for awarding Labels, namely the national stakeholders’ platform also have to have a limited life span and if so what should it be?

 

-          Implementation of the Label.

 

The aim for 2010 is to launch the first award campaign for the Label in the seven pilot countries referred to above. However, any other country may join in now, as the pilot-country stage is over.

 

The launch will be possible thanks to the testing carried out at the beginning of the year, the results that this will have yielded and the improvements to benchmarks it will have made possible. The length of the whole procedure for the award of a Label, from the filing of the candidature by an authority up to the final decision by the national stakeholders’ platform to award the Label, is estimated at some three months. States have the ultimate control over their own timetables but it might be an idea for campaigns to be launched during European Local Democracy Week (around 15 October) or even, in the case of countries which have set up the bodies required very quickly, for the first Labels to be awarded during this week.

 

The first campaign will require a major communication and information effort, both by individual countries under their own responsibility, and within the Council of Europe’s bodies and in its external relations.