Strasbourg, 8 September 2011 CDLR(2011)45
Item C.5. of the agenda
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY
(CDLR)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CRITICAL TIMES: POLICIES
FOR CRISIS, RECOVERY AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Draft Declaration
For adoption
Secretariat Memorandum
prepared by the Directorate General of
Democracy and Political Affairs
Directorate of Democratic Institutions
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We the Ministers responsible for local and regional government of the member States of the Council of Europe declare:
1. Since our last session in Utrecht (November 2009) and further to our Declaration adopted on that occasion, work has been undertaken to monitor the impact of the financial and economic downturn on local and regional government and in the light of the guidelines we adopted in Utrecht, of the policy responses.
2. We highlight in particular that under the auspices of our colleagues Minister Manual Chaves and Secretary of State Gaspar Zarrias of Spain, two stocktaking conferences were held in Strasbourg in September 2010 and June 2011 respectively. We thank our colleagues for the efforts they have made in organising these successful events. We also thank the Open Society Institute (OSI) for its generous contribution enabling the holding of these conferences.
3. Furthermore, at our session here in Kyiv we have been presented with a thorough report, prepared by the CDLR in cooperation with the Open Society Institute and with contributions from the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), entitled “Crisis and Recovery” which sets out the main findings and conclusions to be drawn from all the material collected from member States and observers.
4. We thank the CDLR, OSI and CEMR for their efforts which enable us to have a continent-wide and in depth comparative view both of the development of sub-national budgets in members States since our last Session and of the policy responses that have been adopted.
5. We subscribe to the main conclusions of this report namely that we can acclaim the resilience of local and regional government in dealing with the crisis and that in order to live with the uncertainty of the future we need to adhere to robust strategies with can withstand fluctuating economic fortunes. In particular we adhere to three main strategies:
– to stablise revenue bases for local and regional government,
– to make the most of more limited resources,
– to develop partnerships to address long-term challenges.
6. In order to effectively implement these strategies and having reviewed the guidelines we adopted in Utrecht, we have, drawing on the experience we have gained and drawn together in the report presented at this Session, agreed on a more developed set of guidelines for our actions at domestic level that will henceforth be known as the “Kyiv guidelines” and which appear in the Appendix to our Declaration.
We therefore decide:
- to recommend to the Committee of Ministers that it, in order to assist member States and their local and regional authorities weather the economic downturn and address long-term challenges, enable the cooperation between the governments of member States through appropriate structures and resourcing for the years 2012-2013. In particular we ask our colleagues Ministers of Foreign Affairs to enable work aimed at identifying and exchanging experience and views on trends in budgets at sub-national level as well as on the policy responses to it;
- to recommend to the Committee of Ministers to respond favourably should the Parliamentary Assembly, the Congress and/or the Conference of International Non-governmental Organisation of the Council of Europe request to join this work;
- to commit ourselves to the “Kyiv guidelines” and to contribute actively to the work to be undertaken as set out under paragraph 1 above by engaging our senior officials competent in these matters;
4. to actively disseminate and draw the attention of all relevant stakeholders in our respective countries to the Report “Crisis and recovery” and the “Kyiv guidelines”.