Meeting of NALAS Members’ Presidents “LGA Policy Agenda – Response to Global Crisis”

Dubrovnik, Croatia, 11 July 2009

Speech by Antonella Cagnolati, Director of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Mr Prime Minister,

Mr Mayor of Dubrovnik,

Mr President of NALAS,

Distinguished Presidents of NALAS member associations,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be with you today in Dubrovnik, representing the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

It is a pleasure because five years ago, on 27 May 2004, I saw the NALAS statutes being signed in the Council of Europe’s Assembly Chamber during the 11^th Plenary Session of the Congress, and it is heartening to see the NALAS network widen and strengthen its links throughout South-East Europe over the last five years, through your hard work and determination. At the Congress we were very pleased to learn that the Association of Municipalities of Croatia had joined the NALAS family and I have no doubt that it will be an enriching and fruitful experience for both sides.

This Conference is also an important opportunity for me to contribute, on behalf of the Congress, to the discussion on a subject that touches us all – local responses to the financial crisis. Of course, this theme is of utmost importance to the Congress today.

At its last plenary session in March this year, the Congress held a debate on the international financial crisis: consequences for European local and regional authorities. Delegates from France, Greece, Russia, Slovenia, Italy and Bulgaria – notably Mr Vladimir Moskov, who is also present here, I hope – shared their experiences. I have brought along a summary of this debate as I am sure you will find it useful.

During the debate, a major concern voiced by members was the danger for the financial crisis to become a social crisis, and the need to prevent it from happening. It is clear that at a time when citizens are worried about the future, they pin their hopes on local and regional authorities for giving them back their confidence that local public services will be maintained and social programmes will not suffer from budgetary cuts.

Local and regional authorities have an important role to play in tackling the consequences of the crisis. Indeed, who is suffering from it the most, and who has to find immediate remedies to buttress its consequences in communities? Whereas people have little control over the borrowing and spending by national governments, 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. And yet, until now they have little or no say in the international financial system, which is waking up today to the need for their greater involvement.

On the other hand, some participants in the debate considered that the financial crisis was not just a source of difficulties but also a source of opportunity for new initiatives including training and sustainable energy. We saw this approach in particular during our monitoring mission to Iceland last June, to assess the consequences of the crisis for local communities. Ourdelegation found that the crisis had no paralysing effects on political representatives in that country but, on the contrary, drove an innovative spirit and mutual understanding which activated processes of participation among the various political players at the state and municipal levels. In fact, national authorities undertook steps to strengthen further local self-government, acknowledging the contribution of local authorities to offsetting the crisis.

These two converging trends are increasingly taking shape today: action by national governments which can and must help local communities, and the input from local authorities to national policy-making in handling the crisis which, we hope, will lead to their greater involvement and inclusion in the financial management system at national level.

Against this background, networks of associations of local and regional authorities such as NALAS show their true worth and can make a valuable contribution, by pooling resources and experiences of their member associations and individual communities. It is through shared problems and resolutions that we find our strength, and we must share our experience in crisis management in practical terms.

This is why I would encourage NALAS to create more synergies with the work of the statutory Committees of the Congress. For example, the question of sustainable tourism, which is high on the NALAS agenda – and which should have a particular place in our discussions about the crisis – this question is also being pursued by the Congress’ Committee on Culture and Education. In February this year, the Committee organised a seminar on this subject in Eupen, Belgium, and the Congress held a debate and adopted a resolution and a recommendation in March. And there are more examples of this kind.

We need synergies because we ourselves are not immune to the crisis. In these times of financial difficulties we need to target our resources even more carefully and make full use of the resources we already have. In this regard, at the last meeting of the Congress Bureau, held in Brdo, Slovenia on 9 June, it was decided to not extend the mandate of the Working Group on South-East Europe and instead appoint a General Rapporteur for Local and Regional Democracy in South-East Europe. I am pleased to announce that Mr Refik Rrugeja, Chairman of the Association of Albanian Municipalities, Mayor of Kavaja Bashkia and member of the Standing Committee of the Congress – who normally should be present in this room – was nominated as Rapporteur.

One of the first tasks of Mr Rrugeja in his new role as Rapporteur will be to help the Congress Secretariat prepare a report on ‘Networks of co-operation between National Associations of Local and Regional Authorities: the case of South East Europe (NALAS)’, and present it to a future plenary session of the Congress.

Last but not least, I should mention that the Council of Europe, at the intergovernmental level, in collaboration with LGI, are carrying out a quantitative analysis of the impact of the financial crisis on territorial communities, the results of which will be presented to the Ministerial Conference of European ministers responsible for local and regional government in Utrecht, Netherlands, in November this year. One of LGI experts, Mr Ken Davey, is also here today, and he will no doubt give us more information on this important project.

I am looking forward to your discussions today and to transmitting your recommendations to the Congress members.

Thank you.