Strasbourg, 8 September 2014                                                                     GT-TD(2014)3

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE

(CDDG)

WORKING GROUP FOR THE PREPARATION
OF A REFERENCE TEXT ON DEMOCRACY

(GT-TD)

MEETING REPORT[1]

1.         Opening of the meeting

The meeting was opened by Mrs Claudia Luciani, Director of Democratic Governance, who welcomed the members of the working group. She announced that Ms Snezana Samardzic-Markovic, Director General of Democracy, could not be present right at the opening but would join in the meeting it as soon as possible. She presented the terms of reference of the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) with respect of a reference text on democracy, as set out in document GT-TD(2014)1.

The list of participants appears in Appendix 1.

           

2.         Election of the Chair and the Vice-Chair

Mr Alexander BALTHASAR(Austria) was elected Chair and Ms Desislava Dragova (Bulgaria) was elected vice-chair.

3.         Adoption of the agenda

The agenda as adopted appears in Appendix 2.

4.         Elaboration of an opinion on a reference text on the existing principles and standards of democracy

The Chair started with some preliminary remarks considering that in order to enable the CDDG to give an advice to the Committee of Ministers, the meaning and scope of the wide but key terms “principles and standards” of “democracy” and “programming purposes” should first be made clear. He expressed the view that the purpose of any possible text should not be to create new rights but reinforce the visibility of the existing ones.

 

The Group held a tour de table on the elements of the CDDG terms of reference.

Several delegations linked their position on the necessity also to the purpose and scope of such reference text. In their opinion, the need for such a text was not demonstrated and investing too much time and too many time and resources on this exercise would be counter-productive given the limited means available to the CDDG and its otherwise substantial agenda. Such work had never been carried out before and it was not obvious that it should be right now.

Others held the view that it might be useful and even necessary to draw up such a text but that it would be an ambitious and even distracting project for the CDDG and expressed strong hesitations as regards investing CDDG’s resources and staff in it.

One delegation was firmly in favour of such a reference text that would correspond in the field of democracy to what the European Convention on Human Rights is in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This delegation added that such a text should contain minimum standards for member states to meet.

Other delegations were of the opinion that in any case the reference text should not go beyond the compilation of existing principles and standards of democracy, to be found in Council of Europe conventions and other relevant texts, and that such a compilation should be succinct. As to the field to be covered by the notion of “democracy”, many were of the opinion that this included but was not limited to the local and regional democracy.

The Chair concluded the tour the table noting the importance for delegations of demonstrating the necessity of a reference text, of making use of existing principles and standards including from the Court, the Venice Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress, and of the need to use efficiently all the means available (e-mail, written exchanges, etc.) in order to minimise the impact of this work on the budget, staff and working time of CDDG.

The Chair then invited delegations to comment on the use to be made of such a text, namely its being used “for programming purposes”.

Both views were expressed that the purpose should be limited to the Directorate General of Democracy, in order for it to be given a clear “road map” for its activities, and that it could address issues and themes that are beyond the remit of the DGII but pertain to democracy – such as the media, for instance.

Director Luciani wished to address some of the remarks made by delegations and underlined that the DG II has not so far at its disposal a consolidated text on democracy to inspire and base its activities on. She would see such a text rather as an operational that a political one and considered the CDDG as the best place to elaborate it with the assistance of the Secretariat and by using electronic means of communication between members. Considering  that there was no text in the field of democracy equivalent to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Director suggested that the Secretariat would compile existing principles and standards on democracy under a number of chapters defined by the GT-TD/CDDG. This compilation could serve as a reference framework for ongoing and future DG II activities and leave to the Venice Commission to deal with specific challenges on democracy.

Joining in the meeting, Director-General Samardzic-Markovic recalled the origin of the mandate and the discussions that surrounded its adoption by the Committee of Ministers. She insisted that at this stage the debate was only about the feasibility of such a reference text – a task that was within the competences of and means available to the CDDG – and that if such a reference text were to be eventually drafted the issue of time and resources necessary for that work would need to be addressed.

In her view, the Directorate General of Democracy needs such a text as it would help streamlining its activities and making its functions and purpose clear, thus increasing the visibility and effectiveness of its work within the Council of Europe.

The Chair thanked the Director-General for her contribution to the debate and invited the members of the group to concentrate on the remaining aspects of the mandate, in order to give guidance to the Secretariat in the task of drawing up its “comprehensive document”.

As regards the scope, while some delegations suggested that a reference text/compilation should include the local and regional levels of democracy, other delegations were of the view that beyond the local and regional levels it should cover democracy in the broad sense, without defining precisely the confines. The suggestion to include the supranational level was rejected. The Group agreed that the scope would flow from the purpose.

As regards the budgetary implications and workload, many delegations expressed particular concerns regarding the use of the CoE budget and the costs of the elaboration of a reference text. One delegation asked for detailed estimative document establishing the costs and number of working days of the personnel that would deal with the elaboration of a reference text/compilation. The Group wished the “comprehensive document” to be as detailed as possible on this point.

In conclusion, the chair noted that the “comprehensive document” to be drafted by the Secretariat would address the issues of necessity, purpose and scope of a possible reference text, in the light of a comprehensive review of existing principles and standards of the Council of Europe and taking into account the views expressed by the members. As regards to the budget and workload implications of drafting such a text the Secretariat possesses all the information necessary for completing this section of the report.

As regards the next steps, the Chair noted that such a “comprehensive document” should be circulated to all delegations by the end of August and that delegations wishing to circulate their views on this issue would be welcomed to do so.

 

5.         Other business and date of the next meeting

The Group left it to the Chair, in consultation with the Secretariat, to decide whether a second meeting would be necessary. It was stressed that should such a meeting be deemed to be opportune, it should take place sufficiently ahead of the second plenary meeting of the CDDG. This would enable any draft of the opinion the CDDG will have to adopt to be circulated well in advance so that as much time as really necessary will be devoted to this task during the plenary.

APPENDIX 1

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

CHAIRMAN / PRESIDENT

Mr Alexander BALTHASAR, Head of the Institute for State Organization and Administrative Reform, Federal Chancellery of Austria, Ballhausplatz 1, A - 1014 WIEN

Tel: (43) 1 53115 202806 ; Fax: (43) 1 53109 202806;

E-mail: [email protected]

MEMBERS / MEMBRES

ARMENIA / ARMENIE

Ms Elen HARUTYUNYAN, Deputy to the Permanent Representative, Permanent Representation of Armenia, 40 allée de la Robertsau, 67000 STRASBOURG

E-mail: [email protected]

AZERBAIJAN / AZERBAÏDJAN

Mr Habib ABDULLAYEV, Senior adviser, Human Rights and Public Affairs Department,  Ministry of Justice, B. Safaroglu str. 141, AZ BAKU 1009

Tel: (994) 503521818; E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

BELGIUM / BELGIQUE

M. Paul-Henri PHILIPS, Chargé des Relations internationales, Bruxelles Pouvoirs Locaux, Service public régional de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Jardin Botanique, 20, B – 1035 BRUXELLES

Tel : (32) 2 800 32 77; Cel-phone: (32) 499 58 81 05; Fax :(32) 2 800 38 00;

E-mail : [email protected]

Mr Edwin LEFEBRE, Deputy of the Director, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Flemish Region, Agency for Home Affairs, Boudewijnlaan 30, B - 1000 BRUSSELS

Tel : (32) 2 553 40 16; Fax :(32) 2 553 39 52; E-mail : [email protected]

M. Xavier KALBUSCH, Ministerium der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, Gospert 1, 4700 EUPEN

Tél : (32) (0)87 59 63 00 ; Fax : (32) (0)87 55 28 91 ;

E-mail : [email protected]; [email protected]

BULGARIA / BULGARIE

Mrs Desislava DRAGOVA, Senior expert, Ministry of Regional Development, 17-19 St. Kiril I Metodii Str., 1202 SOFIA;

Tel : +(359) 2 9405 428 ; E-mail: [email protected]

Mrs Marina PETKOVA, Junior expert, Ministry of Regional Development, 17-19 St. Kiril I Metodii Str., 1202 SOFIA;

Tel : +(359) 2 9405 538 ; E-mail: [email protected]

DENMARK / DANEMARK    

Mr Arnold DE FINE SKIBSTED, Ambassador, Permanent Representation of Denmark, 20, avenue de la Paix - 67000 Strasbourg
Tel.: 03 88 35 69 49 ; E-mail: [email protected]

ESTONIA / ESTONIE

Ms Ave VIKS, Adviser, Regional Administration Department, Ministry of the Interior, Pikk 61, TALLINN, 15065

Tel: (372) 612 5124; E-mail: [email protected]

FINLAND / FINLANDE

Ms Inga NYHOLM, Ministerial adviser, Department for Local Government and Regional administration, Ministry of Finance, PO Box 28, FIN – 00023 GOVERNMENT

Tel: (358) 40 760 5524; E-mail: [email protected]

GERMANY / ALLEMAGNE

Mrs Kristina SCHADE, Division O2, Better regulation, bureaucracy reduction; Act on E-Government; local matters, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Alt-Moabit 101, D-10559 BERLIN

Tel: (49) 30 18 681 2137; E-mail: [email protected]

GREECE / GRECE

Mr Georgios CHRYSAFIS, Directorate of Organisation and Functionning of Local Government, Mnistry of the Interior, 27, Stadiou Str., 10183 Athens

E-mail: [email protected]

HUNGARY / HONGRIE

Mrs Kinga JENSEN-MAGYAR, Deputy Head of Mission, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the Council of Europe, 4 rue Richard Brunck, 67000 Strasbourg

E-mail: [email protected]

Mrs Adrienn TÓTHNÉ FERENCI, Deputy Head of Mission, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the Council of Europe, 4 rue Richard Brunck, 67000 Strasbourg

E-mail: [email protected]

ITALY / ITALIE

Mr Francesco GIUSTINO, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, D.A.R. - Ufficio Attività Internazionali, ROMA

Tel. +39.06.6779.5130; E-mail: [email protected]

NETHERLANDS / PAYS-BAS

Mrs Gabriëlle METZ, Policy Advisor, Europe and Governance, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, P.O Box 20011, NL - 2500 EA THE HAGUE

Tel: (31) 6 52766098; E-mail: [email protected]

NORWAY / NORVEGE

Apologised for absence / excusé

SWITZERLAND / SUISSE

Dr Robert BAUMANN, Responsable du Service du Fédéralisme/Responsible for the Service of Federalism, Office fédéral de la Justice, Bundesrain 20, CH – 3003 BERNE

Tél : (41) 31 322 41 61 ; Fax : (41) 31 322 84 01 ;

E-mail : [email protected]

TURKEY / TURQUIE

Mr Ogün BAHADIR, Deputy of Department Head, Department of Foreign Relations and Projects, General Directorate of Local Authorities, Ministry of the Interior

Bakanliklar, Ankara

Tel: 90 312 422 43 75; E-mail: [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOM / ROYAUME-UNI

Mr Paul ROWSELL, Deputy Director, Democracy, Department for Communities and Local Government, 3/J1, Eland House, Bressenden Place, LONDON SW1E 5DU, GB

Tel: (44) 303 44 42568; E-mail: [email protected]

OTHER PARTICIPANTS / AUTRES PARTICIPANTS

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY / ASSEMBLEE PARLEMENTAIRE

Mrs Silvia ARZILLI, Service des questions politiques et de la démocratie

E-mail : [email protected]

CONGRESS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE / CONGRES DES POUVOIRS LOCAUX ET REGIONAUX DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

M. Manuel LEZERTUA, Director of the Congress, Directeur du Congrès

Tel : (33) 3.88.41.21.25 ; E-mail : [email protected]

CONFERENCE OF INGOS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE / CONFERENCE DES OING DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Apologised for absence / excusé

EXPERT-CONSULTANT / CONSULTANT-EXPERT

Prof. Yannis KTISTAKIS, Law Faculty - Democritus University of Thrace, 69100 Komotini, GREECE

E-mail: [email protected]

SECRETARIAT

Mrs Snežana SAMARDŽIĆ-MARKOVIĆ, Director General of Democracy (DG II) / Directrice Générale de la Démocratie (DG II)

Tel : +33 (0)3 88 41 22 36 ; E-mail : [email protected]

Ms Claudia LUCIANI, Director of Democratic Governance / Directrice de la gouvernance démocratique / Directorate General of Democracy / Direction générale de la démocratie

Tel : +33 (0)3 88 41 21 49 ; Fax : +33 (0)3 88 41 27 55;

E-mail : [email protected]

Mr Alfonso ZARDI, Head of Democratic Institutions and Governance Department / Chef du Service des institutions et de la gouvernance démocratiques - Directorate of Democratic Governance / Direction de la gouvernance démocratique, Directorate General of Democracy / Direction générale de la démocratie

Tel : +33 (0)3 88 41 39 06; Fax : +33 (0)3 88 41 27 84; E-mail : [email protected]

Ms Severina SPASSOVA, Senior project manager / Responsable principale de projets - Directorate of Democratic Governance / Direction de la gouvernance démocratique, Directorate General of Democracy / Direction générale de la démocratie

Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 75; Fax: +33 (0)3 88 41 27 84;

E-mail: [email protected]

APPENDIX 2

    

AGENDA