24^th General Assembly - Council of European Municipalities and Regions

Malmö, Sweden, 22-24 April 2009

Speech by President a.i. Ian Micallef - Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to address you today – and not only because the Council of European Municipalities and Regions has been a long-standing partner and good friend of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It is a particular pleasure because I see this General Assembly as a step towards constructing a common vision and a common action plan for the years and maybe decades to come.

This Assembly chose to focus on the very challenges facing our communities today which will shape, and are shaping, our future. I am pleased that many of the challenges that you singled out for discussion coincide with those addressed by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities – citizens’ participation and inclusion, the quality of governance, territorial cohesion, climate change, and partnerships for development, to name but a few. These are common challenges, and they require common responses involving the multitude of actors at all levels of governance.

Allow me to share with you the vision of the Congress which, I am sure, is in synch with that of CEMR.

We in the Congress are convinced that the new situation in which local and regional authorities find themselves today present a historic opportunity for channeling our efforts into creating a Europe of Sustainable Communities– communities that are centred on the citizen, that are inclusive, cohesive and economically self-sufficient, communities that are competitive in the face of globalisation and are ecologically clean. We strongly believe that attaining this goal is not only absolutely necessary but also feasible, and that this is the way for European future.

This new situation is the result of years of an accelerating shift in the power balance from the national towards territorial level, and a consequent steady increase in the role and political weight of local and regional communities and their representative bodies, which have become key players in the European political landscape.

Governments today recognise that solutions to even the most taxing problems require the necessary involvement of territorial communities and their authorities. Global challenges facing society today – climate change, migration, social and economic upheavals, demographic change – all call for responses from local and regional level.

Tackling climate change and global warming, for example, necessitates building adaptive capacities of local and regional communities and finding ways for optimal use of local resources, be it water management, waste disposal, optimisation of public transport networks, sustainable use of energy sources or industrial applications. It also means introducing innovative approaches, and here local and regional authorities have been showing remarkable ingenuity experimenting with what fits best in their communities.

Let me take another example – the global financial crisis. Who has to find immediate remedies to buttress its consequences in communities? Whereas people have little control over the government’s borrowing and spending, they can certainly hold their municipal or regional councils, mayors or governors accountable for managing local resources. It comes as no surprise that local and regional authorities, which in the European Union alone control two thirds of all public investments, have shown over the years a far better management of assets than their national counterparts.

I could go further with this list, but the message is clear – territorial communities today are the stakeholders that governments cannot do without. If our predecessors looked into the Crystal Ball to see the Future twenty, thirty, fifty years ago, I wonder what was revealed to them? Who could imagine back then that territorial authorities would have such a say in national policy-making? Who could imagine that cities and regions would be such important actors on the national and even international scene? Who could imagine that good governance at local level would be considered an integral part of national governance?

And yet, it is the fact today. Communities, through their interaction, networks, representative organisations, transfrontier regions, are becoming a force to reckon with. It is time now to look at the different aspects of community development and link them together in one integrated and systemic development approach.

This approach entails merging the various components of sustainable development – political, economic, social and environmental – into an integrated action to create a new urban and rural environment – geared towards guaranteeing equal access to public services and to social rights such as housing, education and health care, ensuring non-discrimination, gender equality, protection of minoritiesand equal opportunities, and fostering integration and cohesion of our communities. This environment would also require taking due account of the political, social and cultural needs of citizens and balancing economic development and ecological concerns.

We in the Congress strongly believe that the path towards such an environment lies through improving governance, increasing citizens’ participation at local and regional level and ensuring integration and inclusion in our communities. Territorial authorities have a key role to play in these processes.

On the one hand, raising the quality of governance and public services is interdependent on awakening people’s interest in local democracy, motivating them and involving them more in the democratic decision-making, which is key to making them feel empowered and thus committed to the affairs of their communities. Citizens’ involvement is essential for ensuring good governance, because public control is a prerequisite for greater transparency and accountability in governing processes.

In this regard, the use of new technologies in democratic processes opens a whole new range of opportunities for local and regional authorities. E-democracy is a tool not only to increase citizens’ participation, but to go beyond the consultation process in creating a “citizen culture” of informed involvement and virtual presence in the decision-making, leading to a new environment of participation and consultation – a “citizen environment”. Another, more traditional tool of boosting people’s involvement was launched by the Council of Europe two years ago, in the form of the European Local Democracy Week – an annual event which saw the participation of almost 800 municipalities in 33 countries in October last year, with thousands of activities.

On the other hand, overcoming the existing obstacles for integration and inclusion, which are much too often rooted in prejudice and discriminatory attitudes in every-day life and even in administrative practice, is crucial for building cohesive communities. Implementing polices for equal opportunities, making inclusion a priority in local action plans and promoting intercultural and interreligious dialogue at local and regional level are major factors in achieving this objective. It is next to impossible to hold together today’s multiethnic, multicultural and multilinguistic communities without fostering tolerance and mutual respect through dialogue and interaction. Our Congress has identified twelve principles to guide local authorities in promoting such dialogue, and the current “Intercultural cities” programme of the Council of Europe and the European Union is one more concrete example in this regard.

Another major challenge is bridging the urban/rural divide and improving territorial cohesion on our continent. Clearly, ensuring equal opportunities and equal access to public services while reducing economic disparities between communitiesin urban and rural areas is part and parcel of sustainable development, albeit a challenging task for territorial and national governments alike.

Territorial self-government must make its contribution. Local authorities today are often the largest employer in their region, while regional economies and those of large cities often underpin national economic development. Introducing arrangements which would allow local and regional authorities to be involved in joint management of economic affairs with less developed communities and territories, coordinate their policies and action, share experience and best practice, and invest in each other’s projects will certainly contribute to improving the situation of more vulnerable actors. Such arrangements could include, for example, the creation of transfrontier regions or even transfrontier urban agglomerations – Eurodistricts, or the development of municipal networks.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the Congress, our integrated approach found its reflection in the European Urban Charter II: a Manifesto for new urbanity, which we adopted in May last year. The new Charter lays down principles for building and managing an urban environment adapted to the modern needs of communities, and calls for building towns and cities in a way which would make them citizen-oriented, cohesive, sustainable and knowledge-driven.

The new Urban Charter has been complemented by a number of recommendations, drawn up in the same spirit – recommendations dealing with the “Child in the City”, participation of young people at local and regional level, integration of migrants, urban biodiversity, services of general interest in rural areas, responsible consumption, public water and sewer services, and adaptation to climate change, to name but a few. Some of these recommendations dovetail well with the new European Charter on local and regional services of general interest, launched during this Assembly.

I should also mention another important text adopted by the Congress last May – the European Charter of Regional Democracy, intended to supplement the European Charter of Local Self-Government for the regional tier of governance. Apart from being the first legal text laying down the tenets of regional democracy, the Charter offers a variety of models for regional autonomy while reaffirming respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity as one of its main principles. But first and foremost, the new Charter will serve to preserve and enhance regional identity and development in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This final plenary session is aptly entitled “The future starts now!”. Indeed, today we are holding all the elements of this future:

We have territorial communities and their authorities that are being empowered politically, economically and socially, both by the enlarging scope of their competences and by their experience in responding to challenging problems;

We have a vision for the future, a master plan, and we have organisations which are ready, willing and able to lead in turning this vision into reality – your Council of European Municipalities and Regions, our Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the EU Committee of the Regions, other partner organisations and associations of local and regional authorities which we all know, municipal networks and Euroregions – such as, for example, the Adriatic and Black Sea Euroregions launched by the Congress over the past two years;

We have a basic legal framework and guiding documents – the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the Madrid Convention on Transfrontier Cooperation, the European Charter of Regional Democracy, the European Urban Charter II, the European Code of Conduct for local elected representatives, the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at local level;

Most importantly, we have the will to put these elements together for the benefit of our communities and our citizens. We are building the future today, and it depends on our today’s action what this future will be. For my part, looking into the Crystal Ball, I can see a Europe ever more united, ever more prosperous and ever more fair to its citizens – not only at national, but also at regional and local level. I can see a Europe of Sustainable Communities.

Thank you.