Strasbourg, 12 March 2012                                                                    CDLR(2012)7

Item 15 of the agenda

                                                                                                                         

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

CENTRE OF EXPERTISE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

AND CO-OPERATION PROGRAMMES

For information and guidance

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity

Democracy, Institution-Building and Governance Department


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

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 and presents prospects for 2012 and beyond.

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, presented to the Advisory Board and subsequently communicated to the Committee of Ministers. Subject to confirmation of its members, the Advisory Board should meet in late April 2012.

As regards other assistance and co-operation activities, these are provided by the Secretariat at member states’ request, with the participation of independent experts. These activities usually take the form of written advice to strategy papers and policy development papers in the field of local and occasionally regional government, written advice on draft legislation and by-laws, participation in public hearings. “Peer reviews” are also possible forms of advice to and co-operation with member states in selected areas of decentralisation policies 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 legal assistance and benefiting from other forms of co-operation such as “peer reviews”. Expressions of interest as regards providing financial or expert contributions to the programmes would also be welcome.


APPENDIX

CAPACITY BUILDING AND LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN 2011

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

2011 was a very good year for the Centre of Expertise. Its activity level reached a peak.

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.

In 2011, the Centre implemented (the equivalent of) 32 programmes in 18 countries, which is a level of activity far above those noted in any of the precedent years.

The Centre of Expertise is successful in attracting extra-budgetary funding, in the form of Joint Programmes with the European Commission, Voluntary Contributions by member states and co-funding by partners. In 2011, the Centre of Expertise, despite its small size, was the unit of the Council of Europe which had attracted the largest volume of Voluntary Contributions.

In 2011, the Centre launched its first fully-fledged pan-European programme (the previous regional activities were more limited in scope and geographical coverage): the Best Practice for Coastal Towns, following an initiative of the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and in co-operation with the Congress and the Local Government Association of England. This programme is based on the Best Practice tool developed by the Centre. With two weeks to go before the deadline for applying, the number of applications already exceeds the expectations; applications were also received, "hors concours" from non-European local authorities, such as municipalities from Israel.

The Centre also developed or finalised new toolkits, addressing issues which have been raised in the field during the activity implemented in previous years: leadership development, human resources management and cross-border/transfrontier co-operation. It published the toolkit on performance management and municipal planning (developed in 2010-2011) and a French lighter[1] version of the Toolkit III (Public Ethics and Financial Management Benchmarking). Because of a lack of resources, the toolkit on inter-municipal co-operation (developed in 2010 in a larger partnership, including UNDP and OSI/LGI) was not yet published in paper form.

The Centre continued to establish result-oriented partnerships. As an example, a new partnership with the Nordic Council of Ministers led to co-operation on a specific programme in North-West Russia and to the preparation of a new Toolkit on Cross-Border Co-operation. In 2012-2013, the Nordic Council will fund a very ambitious programme in the Russian Federation which is based entirely on the 12 European Principles of Good Democratic Governance and the benchmark of ELoGE.

Unfortunately, Open Society Institute decided to put an end to the activity of one of the important partners and funders of activities of the Centre, the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI). Through previous arrangements, LGI will continue to fund activities of the Centre and second an official at no cost for the Council of Europe until July 2012.

The programme which received a lot of appreciation in 2011 is the Leadership Academy Programme. Not only was it implemented in a large number of countries (Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine) but several partners expressed an interest in obtaining the permission/certification from the Centre to deliver this programme: the Management Centre of Innsbruck (Austria), the Centre for Training of Local Authorities in the Ticino Canton (Switzerland) and NALAS.

With support from the Centre, the Management Centre of Innsbruck prepared and delivered a training programme based on the 12 European Principles of Good Democratic Governance. With the gracious co-operation of the City of Innsbruck, the final practical exam for the students consisted in appraising the performance of the City in the light of the ELoGE Benchmark.

The Centre also provided targeted support to the promotional activities of the Strategy for innovation and good governance (organisation of meetings, presentation of the benchmark, legal advice).

The following table sums up the activities for 2011.


Development and publication of tools

Publication of the new Toolkit on performance management and municipal planning

Finalisation of the Toolkit on Leadership Development in Local Authorities (based on the tools developed for the Leadership Academy Programme)

Development of the Toolkit on human resources management (finalisation and publication in 2012)

Publication of the French version of the Toolkit on Public Ethics and Local Finance Benchmarking

Development of a new Toolkit on Inter-municipal Co-operation (in co-operation with the Nordic Council)


Country-specific programmes

Albania

Human resources management*

Inter-Municipal Co-operation*

                                          

Armenia

Support with strategic municipal planning to the City of Yerevan and other Armenian Cities

Belgium

Performance management

Bulgaria

Public Ethics

Leadership Academy

Croatia

Inter-municipal co-operation

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

Hungary

Best Practice programme

Leadership Academy programme

Italy

Performance management

Malta

National Training Strategy

Assistance to prepare a capacity-building project for local government authorities (to be funded by Norway grants)

Germany

Joint Council of Europe/Kehl Euro-Institute Colloquy on local participative democracy in Europe: tendencies and evolutions

Joint one day Workshop with Kehl Euro-Institut on "Public Management in the turmoil of the financial crisis"

Performance management (in the framework of the promotion of the European Label for Innovation and Good Governance - ELOGE)

Moldova

Best Practice Programme

Russian Federation

Cross-border 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*

Kosovo[2]*

The youth and local government

Spain

Citizen participation

Support to the implementation of the Strategy (with the participation of French pilot cities of Label)

International Conference on “Strategic planning and definition of long term vision for local authorities in Europe”

Switzerland

Best Practice Programme in the Ticino canton

Turkey

Intermunicipal co-operation (with UNDP)

Leadership Academy Programme

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

(over 25 various activities)

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

II.       ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME - THE PROGRAMMES FOR DEMOCRATIC STABILITY

In 2011, the demand for assistance programmes was stable. The Centre delivered substantial support in Montenegro (in the framework of a JP which ended however in May 2011), in Serbia (also in the framework of a JP, which should end in December 2012) and in Ukraine (as part of an on-going programme funded by Sweden also to end in December 2012).


The Armenian government suggested a very ambitious plan of action for support to legal reform, which was put on hold subject to finalisation of the general Council of Europe – Armenia Action Plan.

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)

11 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 2012 AND BEYOND

2012 – another good year

The two most important programmes, those in Ukraine and Serbia, are continuing in 2012. The legal assistance component of the Ukraine programme should be finalised on 31 December 2012.

Negotiations are very advanced for a new JP in Serbia, which should start in early 2013, pending adoption by the Serbian Parliament of the Law on the status of civil servants. This three-year programme 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. It would be the first large programme of the Centre of Expertise which is systematically applied to and helps real-life reform in all local authorities in a country.

The current Albanian programme, funded through a voluntary contribution by Switzerland, finishes on 31 March 2012. However, a new and larger capacity-building programme is in an advanced stage of negotiation with the Swiss donor. This programme should start in mid-2012 and focus on obtaining practical results in creating new inter-municipal co-operation arrangements and the implementation of modern human resource instruments.

A new and ambitious capacity-building programme, including four different components, should start soon in Malta. This programme will be funded by a Norwegian EEA grant offered directly to Maltese authorities.

Other negotiations are being held for new programmes funded by extra-budgetary resources concerning the Russian Federation (where both the government and the EC have confirmed their interest for a new JP in the field of capacity-building for local government), Montenegro and Turkey.

Short-term prospects are therefore very positive. It is currently envisaged that the level of activity of the Centre of Expertise in 2012 will be similar to that of 2011.


Long-term prospects

The reform process of the Council of Europe will significantly impact the Centre of Expertise.

On the one hand, during the year 2012 the Centre will lose two positions paid by the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe and two staff members seconded to the Centre (at no cost for the Council of Europe) will reach the end of their secondment. On the other, a strong priority of the reform is to decentralise a significant amount of the work towards the ten Council of Europe country offices. The ordinary budget of the Centre has also been drastically reduced. Despite its success in raising extra-budgetary funds, the Centre will therefore need to find new ways to maximise the impact of its work in a context of diminishing Strasbourg-based resources.

The Centre is already favouring employment of local staff in the field in countries where the Council of Europe has offices; it currently employs four persons in Ukraine, three in Serbia and one in Albania. This trend will continue as more and more of the actual operational work will be delegated to country offices while the Centre will continue to offer conception, fund raising, supervision and quality assurance. It is hoped that more of the financial management tasks, which take a substantial management time, will also be decentralised to field offices.

The Centre is also looking for partners who can be trained to work with the tools developed by the Centre and who can continue to ensure impact of the Centre's work without a direct and heavy involvement in the management by the Centre. In some countries, programmes (e.g. the Beacon Scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina) launched by the Centre continue with no involvement from the Centre; these programmes are not included in the current report. In others, there is very limited input, generally in the form of expertise, while most of the costs are covered and management is performed by the local partners (e.g. programmes in Belgium, France, Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria, North-West Russia...). Yet in others (e.g. the four programmes to be implemented in Malta), national authorities will cover all costs, including costs with expertise, while the Centre will only provide some free management time for supervision and quality control.

An interesting example is offered by one of the most recent programmes developed by the Centre, the Leadership Academy Programme, which met with a success which went beyond initial expectations. In fact, the success was such that the original leadership programme, based on the more demanding and time-consuming methods of benchmarking and peer reviewing, was practically abandoned. Before even the publication of the toolkit, the programme was already implemented on a sustainable basis, with local authorities covering most of the costs, in a large number of countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine. It was also implemented in North-West Russia and its implementation will start shortly in Malta and Montenegro.


Moreover, as mentioned in the first part of the document, several partners asked the Centre for the authorisation to use this programme in their future training offer: the Management Centre of Innsbruck, the Centre for Training of Local Authorities in the Ticino Canton (Switzerland) and NALAS. A training of trainers will be organised in Bellinzona (Ticino) for the Swiss and Austrian partners (but also for some trainers from Ukraine and Malta), and another one in Strasbourg for NALAS. Following these trainings, the above-mentioned partners should be able to receive the authorisation to make use of the Leadership Academy toolkit in their work.

Such business model, whereas the Centre trains and authorises partners to do the work in its stead could be extended to other programmes which met with significant success, such as the Best Practice Programme, the Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme, the Human Resource Management Programme etc.

The relation with the Schools of Political Studies could be improved. In some counties (i.e. Ukraine), the co-operation is very good; several alumni of the Ukainian School are used as local experts and the School co-operates with the local team and is interested in taking over some of the programmes of the Centre. In other cases however, an improvement of such co-operation can be explored.

Another interesting development could be the launching of European or regional, and not only national programmes. As mentioned in the first part, the Best Practice for Coastal Towns programme is the first of this kind and met with significant interest, despite the very limited timeframe available and very reduced promotional efforts. Such programmes could be launched with the help of regional partners, such as NALAS.



[1]           For budgetary reasons, the case studies were not included in the translation and publication of the French version.

[2]  In partnership with the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo. All reference to Kosovo, whether the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.