Strasbourg, 5 September 2011                                                             CDLR(2011)36

Item B.9. of the agenda

                                                                                                                         

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

CENTRE OF EXPERTISE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

AND CO-OPERATION 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.

Foreword

This document gives an overview of the activities of the Centre of expertise for local government reform and of the legal assistance provided to member states in the year 2011. It describes the main programmes implemented and the outputs provided so far in the course of the year, following the bringing together of the Centre and the programmes for democratic stability under the single management of the Head of the Centre.

It is recalled that the Centre of expertise, established in 2006, operates in close co-operation with the CDLR and the Congress of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe, both of which are represented in its Advisory Board. The Centre implements programmes aimed at strengthening the capacities of local authorities in member states, at their request and in co-operation with the relevant associations. An annual activity report is established and communicated to the Committee of Ministers. The report for 2011 will be examined by the Committee of Ministers on 21 September 2011 (1121st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies).

As regards other assistance and co-operation activities, they are provided by the Secretariat, at member states’ request, with the participation of independent experts including CDLR members. These activities usually take the form of advice to strategy papers and policy development papers in the field of local and occasionally regional government, advice on draft legislation and bye-laws. Panels of experts, participation in public hearings, peer-reviews are also possible forms of advice to and co-operation with member states in the field of decentralisation and/or consolidation of territorial reforms.    

Action required

CDLR members are invited to take note of the information provided in this document and make comments as they deem appropriate. They are in particular invited to express an interest for receiving assistance and co-operation or for providing financial or expert contributions to the programmes available.

APPENDIX

CAPACITY BUILDING AND LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN 2011

I.         CAPACITY BUILDING - THE CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT     REFORM

The short-term prospects (2011) for the Centre of Expertise are very good. The Centre has established itself as a serious partner for national and international institutions, offering modern programmes to local authorities which want to improve the quality of their governance. It has raised interest among and obtained commitment from municipalities and associations in a large number of countries. And, last but not least, it has been able to secure extra-budgetary funding in order to respond to as many demands as possible.

The Centre has all reasons to believe that 2011 will be indeed a record year: it currently envisages the implementation of 33 programmes in 19 countries. Even if one or two of these are cancelled by local stakeholders at the last minute, it is clear that the number of both activities and countries where they will be implemented are well above those noted in any of the precedent years.

The Centre should also finalise two new toolkits, addressing issues which have been raised in the field during the activity implemented in previous years: leadership development and human resources management. It should also publish the toolkit on performance management and municipal planning (developed in 2010) and, subject to funding, the toolkit on inter-municipal co-operation (also developed in 2010 in a larger partnership, including UNDP and OSI/LGI and now available only on the web).

The Centre’s support for the implementation of the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level will also continue, in particular through addressing the specific needs of countries engaged in the Strategy. However, the Centre will also continue to promote the Strategy and the European Label of Good Governance (ELoGE) and, upon request, to offer support to countries which are implementing the Strategy and are setting up arrangements for delivering the label.

Activities envisaged

The following table sums up the activities for 2011. As already mentioned, this is a very ambitious programme; however, it is based on funds already identified or under advanced negotiation.

Development and publication of tools

Publication of the new Toolkit on performance management and municipal planning Finalisation and possible publication of the Toolkit on Leadership Development in Local Authorities (based on the tools developed for the Leadership Academy Programme) Finalisation of the Toolkit on human resources management (publication in 2012) Publication of the French version of the Toolkit on Public Ethics and Local Finance Benchmarking Possible publication of the Toolkit on Inter-municipal Co-operation

Country-specific programmes

Albania Human resources management* Inter-Municipal Co-operation* Leadership Academy Programme*                                            Armenia Support with strategic municipal planning to the City of Yerevan and other Armenian Cities Belgium Performance management Bulgaria Public Ethics Leadership Academy Croatia Leadership Academy programme France 4 training sessions on performance management for INET International Conference on transparency and public ethics, in co-operation with the City of Strasbourg, the University of Pau and the CNFPT 4th Joint Seminar Council of Europe/INET on strategic management at local level in Europe Training on local government and capacity building in Europe to the Strasbourg School of Political Studies.   Georgia Follow-up to the Strategic Municipal planning Programme Training of municipal councillors Hungary Best Practice programme Leadership Academy Italy Performance management Malta Performance Management National Training Strategy

Germany Joint Council of Europe/Kehl Euro-Institute Colloquy on local participative democracy in Europe: tendencies and evolutions Joint 1 day Workshop with Kehl Euro-Institut on "Public Management in the turmoil of the financial crisis" (organized under the 4th Seminar of three days on strategic management at local level with INET) Montenegro Financial benchmarking Moldova Best Practice Programme Russian Federation Inter-municipal Co-operation Programme (North-West Russia) Chechnya Four new training activities (possibly, subject to approval by Russian authorities, a fully-fledged programme on municipal planning). Serbia Performance Management* Human Resources Management* Local Finance Benchmarking* Kosovo[1]* The youth and local government Spain Citizen participation Support to the implementation of the Strategy (with the participation of French pilot cities of Label) Switzerland Best Practice Programme in the Ticino canton Turkey Intermunicipal co-operation (with UNDP) Ukraine Follow-up to the Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme* Best Practice Programme* Performance Management Programme* Local Finance Benchmarking* Leadership Academy Programme* Support to the implementation of the Strategy

* Programmes implemented with financial support from the EC or from member States

II.       ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME - THE DIVISION OF PROGRAMMES FOR DEMOCRATIC STABILITY

The following table presents the main results of the legal assistance in various countries in 2011. It does not refer to activities because of lack of space.

Albania Assistance with the preparation of three sublegal acts/ implementation decrees on Territorial Planning. Armenia                                                       New plan of action on decentralisation Background study on LSG competencies Preparation of revision of the basic law on LSG Georgia New revision of the organic law on LSG and a law on Tbilisi (to be amended in the Fall 2011) Discussion on possible revision of the Budget Code and fiscal decentralisation Malta Series of meetings on the role of the Executive Secretaries Montenegro Support with the finalisation of the Public Administration Reform Amendments to the law on the Financing of Local Self-Government 3 Appraisal reports on: the Law on Capital City; Real Estate Taxation; Assessment on Local Finances; Comments and recommendations on the Local Self Government section of the Public Administration Reform Strategy Model Ordinances on: Ethical Committees for Elected Representatives; Ethics Committees for local public servants.

Moldova Preparation of the Strategy for Decentralisation Serbia 16 different outputs (legal appraisals, contributions, reports, recommendations) in the fields of: Institutional framework for local governments Financial arrangements and financial decentralisation Co-ordination mechanisms and decentralisation strategy Citizen participation. Ukraine Preparation of the draft Strategy for Decentralisation and LSG reform Support to the preparation of PAR Support to IMC (legal and practical) 8 appraisals: municipal service; water decentralisation; Budget Code; draft Law "on local referenda”; audit of LSG bodies; regional development; territorial organisation of power; merger of rural communities. Over 30 different events, roundtables and workshops.

III.      PROSPECTS FOR 2011 AND BEYOND

The two most important programmes, in Ukraine and Serbia are continuing in 2011. The Joint Programme delivered in Serbia, which has already obtained very good results and substantial impact (in terms of reform already implemented by the Serbian authorities), will be finalised in April 2012 but its possible extension till late 2012 is being discussed.

Negotiations are also being held with the European Commission and the Serbian Ministry for Public Administration concerning a new joint programme, to be implemented from late 2012 till 2015 that would focus on the development of the institutional capacities of Serbian local authorities, and in particular the implementation of modern and effective human resources management tools elaborated and experimented by the Council of Europe in the framework of the ongoing Joint Programme.

The Programme in Ukraine is taking off and will produce real-life impact in 2011 (its second year of operation), in line with the reaffirmed interest of the Ukrainian government for decentralisation.

The programme in Montenegro has been finalised in June 2011.

Assistance will continue to be provided to the Albanian government, in the framework of a programme funded through a voluntary contribution by Switzerland, on prospects for and modalities of intermunicipal co-operation and strenghtening human resources’ capacities at local level. Other fields of co-operation could be added to the programme, subject to an agreement with the Albanian government and the donor country.

Other assistance activities will be organised according to demands and available funds.