Strasbourg, le 8 septembre 2011                                        CDLR(2011)35

Item B.8. of the agenda

                                                                                                      

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

COMMUNICATION RELATING TO THE CDLR

AND LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

For information and adoption

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

Communication has become an important part of the work of the CDLR.  The impetus for its importance derives from Minister Kiviniemi’s report on “How to enhance the work of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy?” and the declaration by European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government, meeting in Utrecht on 16 and 17 November 2009 for the 16th Session of their Conference, that “the work of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy deserves to be better known and an active communication policy should be developed in order to maximize its impact on member States and civil society” (Utrecht Declaration, II.A, 5.).

Using the “To do list” as a reference (Appendix I to document CDLR(2010)6), please see below (items 2. – 6.) for the “to do list” items which have been implemented to date or are currently being implemented.

Please use the latter document as a reference since its appendices are not reproduced here.

1.       Decisions taken at the CDLR meeting in respect of Communication

The Committee took note of the highlights of communication activities 2010/beginning 2011 and the future communication projects. It welcomed the setting up of a (restricted access) internet forum for debate and exchange of information and data between CDLR members.

2.        Highlights of communication activities 2010-2011

For the highlights of 2010 up until October 2010, please refer to document CDLR(2010)34.

Colloquy on Transparency and Public Ethics, 30 June-1 July 2011, Strasbourg

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE:1 July 2011]

The colloquy was organised as part of a week dedicated to Ethics, Transparency and Politics. It is the third in a series of colloquies jointly organised by the Council of Europe, the  Pau University and the Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale (CNFPT), with the City of Strasbourg as co-organiser. The Colloquy was the second event in a whole week devoted to ethics and transparency in politics, the other one being the Council of Europe’s annual Summer University of Democracy, organised by the Schools of Political Studies.

A cameraman was hired for the event, to film interviews with the speakers and other participants, with a view to making a third promotional video.


17th session of the Ministerial Conference, Kyiv, Ukraine, 3-4 November

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: in progress]

The Secretariat is organising a communication campaign for this conference, in co-operation with the Press Department of the Council of Europe. At the Conference itself, publications and leaflets on recent outputs on local and regional democracy will be made available to participants.

External contacts

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: in progress]

Work on drawing up a list of external contacts (associations, news agencies, free-lance journalists) working in local and regional democracy was begun in July. These contacts will be sent news releases drawn up by the Secretariat on a regular basis. Their response to being approached by the Secretariat has so far been very positive. Individual contacts may have their own distributions lists to which news of interest to the organisation could be circulated as well. The Secretariat will ensure that information reaches relevant contacts while avoiding excessive and indiscriminate dissemination.

Outside interest in our news

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: Ongoing]

Research on Google showed that some Council of Europe news items are being picked up by external bodies working in local and regional democracy, in particular the news on Bulgaria becoming the first member State to be accredited to award the label, and displayed on their websites.  These organisations news have since been contacted and added to the list of external contacts mentioned above.

3.        Future communication projects

Human Rights

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: ongoing]

It was agreed at the 46th CDLR meeting to include a human rights/human dimension focus in the activities on communication (see item 1 above).

Further proposals will be put to the CDLR on this point, following the Discussions in the CDLR and at the Ministerial Conference in Kyiv, Ukraine in November, on human rights at local level (see also item 5.2 of the agenda of this CDLR meeting).

In the meantime, media work (press releases, editorial opinions, twitter) on our activities will continue to focus on the human dimension where possible.


In addition, the Secretariat will send the new list of external contacts information and press releases from the European Court on Human Rights on decisions of consequence for the local level.

CDLR on Twitter

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: in progress]

It is proposed to open a Twitter account for the Secretariat to keep CDLR members and other contacts up-to-date with the latest activities, reports available, missions, new ratifications, decisions taken during ministerial conferences, etc.

Twitter, currently free-of-charge, allows for a 140-character message, or "tweet", to be sent to a site where anyone can read it. It is only ever sent directly to those who have chosen to follow the sender or whom the sender has chosen.

The tweet’s brevity would make it far easier for the Secretariat to keep CDLR members and others informed of our activities in real-time, thus circumventing the current time delay which is unavoidable with news for the website, since this needs to be seen and approved by a chain of people. 

Twitter would be a particularly useful communication instrument for targetting the new external contacts mentioned under item 2 above. Furthermore, twitter suggests your profile to other like-minded twitter users, facilitating in this way our contact with others working or interested in local and regional democracy. More indepth news would continue to be added to the website. Twitter would not replace the website.

It is proposed that the CDLR tweets be made available to a public rather than private audience, since this would be better for visibility.

Questionnaire prepared for the 13 Bulgarian municipalities awarded the label

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: in progress]

A questionnaire will be sent to the 13 Bulgarian municipalities awarded the Label to have a better idea of how and if ELoGE can improve a municipality’s performance and situation in general.  The information gathered will be used to communicate on the Strategy and ELoGE in other member States. The questionnaire appears in the appendix to this document for information.


4.        Website

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 11; DEADLINE: ongoing]

The Local and Regional Democracy website remains the main communication tool for the CDLR. The website for the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance was revamped earlier this year.  A new page for video’s and podcasts of Council of Europe activities on local and regional democracy became accessible from the home page.  The news page has been updated regularly, and the some of the stories have been followed up by external bodies and the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Communication for twitter and podcasts. Local and regional democracy articles on Ukraine from the Department had the greatest number of hits last year on the Directorate of Communication’s website.

Podcasts

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: awaiting further instruction]

Podcasts were to be made of members of the Secretariat talking about aspects of the Department’s activities on local and regional democracy. The aim of the podcasts was to give a quick overview of CDLR activities, Centre of Expertise activities and those on the Strategy to anyone who wants to have an overall idea of our work without having to wade through our documents and publications.  Unfortunately, the equipment for making these podcasts is not yet available. The Directorate of Communication have informed us that this situation should change in the next year.

5.        Publications of the CDLR

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 7; DEADLINE: ongoing]

Work is in progress on the Estonia Structure and Operation report, which will soon be sent to the CDLR Committee for approval by the written procedure, with a view to its publication before the end of the year. Other reports to be published this year include a reprint of the first Toolkit on Capacity Building for Local Government (first published in 2005) and the publication of Toolkit IV on Performance Management and Strategic Municipal planning. The Analytical tool for assessing the autonomy of first-tier local authorities was published in Spring 2011.

 


6.        Communication Network

[TO DO LIST ITEM: 6; DEADLINE: ongoing]

Following the CDLR approval at its 46th meeting of the proposal for each member State to appoint a Communication Correspondent, a request was sent out at the beginning of the year for member State nominations. Following a poor response, a further request was made after the 47th CDLR meeting. Several nominations have since been received and a network of 22 members is now up and running. The member States represented are as follows: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey.

The network was instrumental in publicising the colloquy on Transparency and Public Ethics mentioned under item 2 above. Further nominations for the network are still possible and welcome.

Action required

CDLR members are invited:

1.       to take note of the information provided in the present document;

2.       to approve the decision to set up a CDLR Twitter account, with public access;

3.       to continue actively contributing to the new communication policy in order to enhance the visibility of the Council of Europe’s work on local and regional democracy at national level by:

i) identifying appropriate communication activities for appropriate committees;

ii) identifying appropriate follow-up in member states;

iii) drawing up communication plans by reference to the Communication checklist;

iv) flagging up important activities to make visible in 2011-12.


Appendix

Strasbourg, 10 August 2011

Questionnaire on your muncipality’s implementation of
the “Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance” and
its award of the
“European Label of Governance Excellence” (ELoGE)

Firstly, may we congratulate your municipality on its recent award of the Council of Europe's European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE). 

Since you are among the first thirteen municipalities to have won the award, we would be very interested in having some feedback from you, and would kindly ask you to fill in the questionnaire below.  A publication will be prepared on the basis of your replies which we would like to use to inspire other member States' local authority associations and similar interested parties.

We would be grateful if you could send your replies to the questionnaire by email to [email protected] by xxx at the latest.

We would like to thank you for your attention.

Questions

1.       What motivated your municipality to adhere to the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance (hereafter "the Strategy") and its 12 principles?

2.       When you applied to adhere, what were your expectations and have these been met to date?

3.       Which principles did your municipality focus on in particular ?

4.       Did implementation of the Strategy entail additional effort for your municipality or were you awarded it on the basis of its performance at the time of the award?

5.       What was the most important change for your municipality as a result of implementing the Strategy in your locality?

6.       What other innovations and developments have come about, particularly with regard to the environment / public services / [other - please specify]?

7.       How does your municipality's performance under the Strategy compare with its performance from previous years? How is this measured concretely?

8.       How has implementing the Strategy helped your muncipality cope with recession ? What efficiency gains have been made? What visible budgetary savings have been made?

9.       How has your authority become more effective ? How do you measure this concretely? How has staff working capacity improved ?

10.     What positive feed-back have local inhabitants given and have relations with the community visibly improved?

11.     Would you recommend the Strategy to other municipalities and why?

Directorate of Democratic Institutions, Council of Europe