23rd Session of the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education

Ljubljana (Slovenia), 4-5 June 2010

Speech by Vice-President Günther Krug, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr Chairman, Ministers,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

A Europe that is democratic, sustainable and inclusive is a shared goal of all tiers of governance on our continent today – European institutions, national governments, and local and regional authorities. In fact, building a Europe of Sustainable Communities is a declared objective of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, an assembly representing more than 200,000 territorial communities from 47 European countries.

Knowledge, and the proper education of our citizens, are indispensable for modern development. Today’s societies are increasingly fast-paced and knowledge-driven, and therefore knowledge-dependant. This brings to the forefront the role of education as a tool to sustain social and economic development and indeed the very democratic essence of our civilisation. Because, beyond technological progress, our societies are based on a culture of democracy – acceptance of difference, respect for the other’s opinion, equal treatment, and democratic participation.

Indeed, democratic culture, instilled through proper education, underlies the entire range of elements which we consider to be key to democratic stability, social harmony and eventually prosperity – intercultural and interreligious dialogue and tolerance, gender equality, respect for individual rights and human dignity, inclusion and participation,. All these issues are of direct concern to territorial administrations, because of their paramount importance for building a “better life” in our communities, for building a “better society”. This makes education as much a matter for local and regional authorities as it is for national governments.

This is why the Council of Europe Congress, through its Committee on Culture and Education, has been actively involved in defining educational approaches that would serve as tools for local and regional authorities in improving governance and the quality of life in our cities and regions. Indeed, in many countries, territorial authorities have direct responsibilities for building and managing educational capacity – such as, for example, the Länder in my native Germany.

However, education itself, as a tool for fostering a culture of democracy, must also evolve and adapt to the requirements of the fast-changing society. For example, new communication technologies today offer a wide range of opportunities for all levels of governance in the framework of e-democracy – helping our action for inclusion and contributing to the creation of a “citizen environment” for public consultation and democratic participation. The Congress has already adopted a recommendation to local authorities in this respect. At the same time, making good use of these new tools entails appropriate education for elected representatives and their staff, government officials and citizens themselves.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Along with the evolution of society, education must be changing to keep abreast of these new developments, and education is changing. New skills are increasingly being used today, putting pressure on authorities, including local governments, to offer the necessary training, and on educators to be up to date with their teaching methods and materials. More often than not, it is young people that are setting the pace of innovation, and we must look seriously into involving them into the educational process, not only as pupils on the receiving end but also as active participants in the training of others. I would call it “skill-sharing”, which also goes to the general question of more active youth participation in democracy, starting at local and regional level. Education is certainly one way of boosting the involvement of young people in the life of their communities.

In this context, the Congress is currently preparing a report on education for democratic citizenship as a tool for local authorities. This report will cover a number of aspects which we see as essential for the development of active citizenship at grassroots level through education. I certainly hope that our deliberations during this Conference, and most importantly our interaction, interaction between national and territorial level, will be mutually enriching and will feed into the preparation of this report.

This brings me to the last point of my intervention, which is also a theme for this Conference – the importance of partnerships and networks in education. Local and regional authorities are definitely natural partners of national governments in educational efforts, but we need to reach out to other sectors of society which all have a stake in the quality of education and educators – non-governmental organisations and civil society in a broad sense, and not least the private sector which needs an educated labour force for business development.

For its part, the Congress created as early as 1995 the European Network of training organisations for local and regional authorities, ENTO, to keep up the standard of professional knowledge and skills of elected representatives and their administrations. Its experience can certainly be of value in the elaboration of national education strategies, and I hope that governments will resort more often to the services of ENTO. More such networks are needed across our continent if we are to succeed in making education responsive to modern needs, high quality, life-long and permeating all layers of society.

I wish all of us – European institutions, national, regional and local governments – great success in rising up to this challenge. After all, we are all partners in this effort, in our common endeavour of building a Europe that is democratic, sustainable and inclusive.

Thank you.