Strasbourg, 5 september 2011                                                              CDLR(2011)41

                                                                                         Item C.3. of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

AND THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE

For preparatory action

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

At the 16^th session of their Council of Europe Conference (Utrecht, 16-17 November 2009), the Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government asked their colleague, Ms Mari Kiviniemi of Finland, to develop concrete proposals for a partnership between the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the Conference, and requested the Committee of Ministers to invite Ms Kiviniemi to attend its 120^th session (May 2010) in order to discuss with her the establishment of such partnership.

Ms Kviniemi started preparing her report, a task which, once she became Prime Minister of Finland, was taken over by the new Minister of Public Administration and Local Government, Mr Tapani Tölli. Mr Tölli developed a questionnaire and proposals for consideration by his colleagues. Taking into account the comments and proposals received, he finalised his report that was communicated to all Ministers and to the Committee of Ministers on 22 March 2011 (see Appendix).

The Committee of Ministers did not extend an invitation to Ms Kiviniemi to attend its 120^th session (May 2010) but nonetheless “instructed the Deputies, with the input of the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR), to initiate a dialogue with the conference in order to formulate proposals and to report back at the 121^st Ministerial Session”.

At the 121^st session (11 May 2011), having received the Tölli report, the Committee of Ministers “took note of the proposal concerning a possible partnership between the Conference of Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government and the Committee of Ministers”.

On 5 July 2011, the Rapporteur Group on Democracy of the Committee of Ministers (GR-DEM) discussed the possible reply to Minister Tölli (and the ministerial conference) on the basis of a draft letter prepared by the United Kingdom and agreed to resume consideration of this issue at its next meeting, on 6 September 2011 on the basis of a new draft reply.

Action required

The CDLR is invited to note the response by the Committee of Ministers – if already adopted by the time it meets – on the Tölli proposal and to agree on elements for a declaration to be adopted by Ministers at the 17^th session of the ministerial conference in Kyiv.

Should the reply by the Ministers’ Deputies not be available by the time of the CDLR meeting, the CDLR is invited to entrust the Bureau with preparing draft elements for the Kyiv Declaration once the reply has become available and to instruct the Bureau to send its draft to delegations for written (e-mail) comments as soon as possible.

Appendix