Conference on the 20th anniversary of the ratification by Italy

of the European Charter of Local Self-Government

Rome, 6 July 2010

Speech by Andreas KIEFER, Secretary General of the Congress

of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On 15 October 1985, Oscar-Luigi Scalfaro, then Minister of the Interior of Italy, who later became President of the Republic, was among the first high-level representatives of national governments to sign a brand new European treaty – a treaty which, for the first time in history, established the rights of communities and laid down the principles of local democracy, binding for national authorities.

The European Charter of Local Self-Government was a turning point in the spectacular advance of local and regional democracy on our continent that put on a legal footing the devolution of power and heralded the beginning of a new era – the era of what I would like to call “proximity governance”, bringing democracy to the level closest to the citizen. No doubt the Charter changed the political landscape of Europe.

Twenty years ago, the process of the Charter’s ratification in Italy was successfully completed. This country thus became one of the first member States of the Council of Europe to recognise the right of citizens to manage their own public affairs and participate in political life at local level – in other words, their right to govern themselves.

We are here today to mark the 20th anniversary of this historic event. We are here to celebrate, together with our Italian friends, the triumphant march of local and regional democracy across Europe and the unstoppable forward movement in the decentralisation process, which have been a landmark of European democratic development, unparalleled in the world.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe has been the driving force of this development for more than 50 years. The Congress was the instigator of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and remains the main guardian of the rights and principles set out in this key convention. Its history fully reflects the evolution of the local and regional dimension of European democracy itself, and as Secretary General of the Congress, I am grateful to the Italian hosts for organising this conference and giving all of us an opportunity to recall together the origins and the “glorious path” of self-government in Europe, and to discuss the needs for training of politicians and municipal staff.

This conference is also an opportunity to look at the current state of affairs and the future prospects for European local and regional democracy, and I would like to share with you today some of the ideas and observations in this regard.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The local and regional dimension of European democracy was born, much as the Council of Europe itself, out of the ashes and rubble of the Second World War. It was born out of the conviction, deeply seated in the post-war European society, that the concentration of power in the national centres must be counterbalanced by stronger development of the power base at the grassroots, at local and regional level. National governments themselves recognised that to create an effective and sustainable state, democracy must necessarily be rooted in the strong democratic mechanisms in local communities, which are the foundation of any democratic system and a prerequisite for democratic stability.

The needs of the post-war reconstruction of local communities, which required autonomy in decision-making, brought into prominence the movement of mayors in the 1950s. In 1953, Mayor of Bordeaux Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who later would become Prime Minister of France, launched an initiative to create a European reference point for local powers, a representative body that should be the voice of local authorities as partners of national governments and parliaments in the European construction. In 1956, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe followed the request of the Parliamentary Assembly and established the European Conference of Local Authorities, the forerunner of the Congress of the Council of Europe, which held its first session in January 1957.

Parallel to the movement of mayors, regional development in Europe was gaining importance, along with the growing realisation that the way to develop democracy was by actively involving both municipalities and regions in the European construction process. Against the background of the idea to create a “European Senate of the regions”, the European Conference of Local Authorities also became the official representative of regions, when the regional dimension was added to its Charter in 1975, and its title was changed to the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe.

On 14 January 1994, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers formally created the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, to replace the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. The same year, the Committee of the Regions was established within the European Union, which is the main institutional partner of the Congress in the EU.

The regional development gave a major boost to the advance of territorial democracy as different models of regions and regional autonomy, and different frameworks of their interaction with central authorities, began to take shape. Since the 1980s, a large number of representative regional organisations have been created to promote the regional agenda: the Assembly of European Regions, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, the Association of European Border Regions or the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, to name but a few. In order to contribute actively to the work of these associations, the municipalities and regions need to dispose of skilled staff, able to demonstrate effective performance.

Today, all these organisations are partners of the Council of Europe Congress in advancing regionalisation in Europe, which has been high on our political agenda, reflecting the growing power and importance of regions in many Council of Europe member states and the strengthening of regional democracy on our continent. Indeed, many national parliaments today have regional representation in the second chamber; a growing number of countries have regions with legislative power; still others are in the process of developing regional structures.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To give local governance a legal basis, the European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted in 1985. It laid down the core principles of local governance and common standards for protecting and developing the rights of local communities and their authorities. The Charter’s entry into force in 1988, and its ratification by 44 European countries to date, sped up the momentum of the devolution of power on our continent, releasing the potential of communities and empowering them to take up the many challenges facing our society. It ushered in a new stage of democratic development on our continent, leading to a democracy which is more citizen-oriented, more participatory and therefore more effective. This is also evident from the additional protocol to the Charter, opened for signature in November 2009, which reaffirms the right of citizens to participate in the affairs of a local authority.

The Congress is tasked with monitoring the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and thus the development of local and regional democracy, and remains today the only European body with the legal mandate to do so. It is by this virtue that we carry out country-by-country monitoring exercises to assess situations at local and regional level, fact-finding missions to look into cases of potential violations of the Charter, and observation of local and regional elections to see the Charter’s practical application to the electoral process. On 18 June 2010, the Congress adopted monitoring guidelines, to make sure that every member state of the Council of Europe is monitored at least once every five years, and to improve transparency, quality and effectiveness of the monitoring exercise.

While the rights recognised in the Charter apply first and foremost to local authorities, the Charter stipulates that they may also apply to regional authorities where they exist. However, the magnitude of regional development in Europe calls for a specific legal instrument to address the issues of regional governance.

This is why for more than a decade, the Congress has been trying to convince national governments of the necessity to elaborate a convention for the regional level, similar to the Local Self-Government Charter. In 1997, the Congress adopted the draft European Charter of Regional Self-Government, which received full support of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. However, this project was not accepted by national governments as a binding instrument. Nevertheless, the Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government adopted in 2002 the so-called “Helsinki principles” of regional self-government.

In 2008, the Congress adopted a draft European Charter of Regional Democracy. It was not accepted in the form of a convention, either. Instead, drawing on the text of the draft Charter and the Helsinki principles, governments elaborated a Reference Framework on Regional Democracy, which was adopted by Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government in Utrecht last November. Although not of a binding character, this reference framework represents an encouraging compromise and a new departure in our efforts.

The reference framework will serve as a reference point for any government wishing to begin a process of regionalisation or reform of its local and regional structures. It is also a means of helping governments to strike the best possible balance in the apportionment of powers and responsibilities among different tiers of government. The text stresses the principle of subsidiarity, the principle of social and territorial cohesion and the need for solidarity among the components of a sovereign state.

Regional authorities, whatever their nature or particular institutional character, will now possess references and principles concerning their democratic structure, their organisation, competences and own resources, their place within the state, their relations with other authorities, and their relations with citizens. However, we do hope that the time will come for a Regional Democracy Charter to be adopted as a binding instrument.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Another key feature of local and regional democracy in Europe today is transfrontier co-operation between local and regional communities.

The Council of Europe played the pioneering role in this domain, when its member states recognised the importance of this co-operation already in 1980, by adopting the Madrid Convention on transfrontier co-operation. The Convention determines the modalities for such co-operation between communities, allowing them to enter into specific agreements. Its additional protocols provide for the possibility of such agreements also between non-bordering communities, while the most recent, 3rd Protocol makes easier the creation of Euroregional co-operation groupings between EU and non-EU countries.

Today, interregional and inter-municipal co-operation across national borders, much as their co-operation within their countries in the overall context of inter-territorial co-operation, is a major contributing factor to improving territorial cohesion in Europe. It also fuels innovation in communities, through experience-sharing, economies of scale and cross-investment in innovative projects. For its part, the Council of Europe Congress was instrumental in setting up the Adriatic Euroregion in 2006, in which Italy is taking an active part, and the Black Sea Euroregion in 2008, both platforms for local and regional co-operation regardless of borders or the EU membership.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The history of the evolution of local and regional democracy in Europe is as fascinating as it is crucial for understanding where we stand today, and where we can go from here.

We have all the elements to move forward. Over the years, we have developed a basic legal framework for democratic self-government. We have a network of partnerships at local and regional level for joint action. We have mechanisms for co-operation and dialogue with national governments. We have action plans – for instance, the Utrecht Agenda for the establishment of good local and regional governance for 2010-2013, adopted by European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government in November last year. Finally, we in the Congress have accumulated substantial experience in monitoring the situation of local and regional democracy.

At the same time, a report of the Parliamentary Assembly of June this year speaks about the crisis of European democracy, caused by destabilising effects of globalisation and modernisation in the absence of adequate transnational constitution of political counter-powers. This crisis manifests itself in an increasing distance between citizens on the one hand and democratic institutions and institutionalised procedures of democracy on the other, as well as institutional deficits of democracy, such as the lack of effective rights of citizen participation, the weakness of parliaments vis-à-vis the executive, and governmental work that is geared to short-term electoral success and lacks long-term vision. Finally, the report refers to the politically ambivalent role of the media, trying to set the political agenda.

So, where do we go from here, and what at are the future prospects?

For us, the way out of the crisis is further decentralisation of power. It makes sense economically: local and regional authorities know best the needs of their communities and businesses and show a better economic performance in optimising the use of their resources, which is why, in most aspects, a higher level of decentralisation is linked to stronger economic growth. The link between subsidiarity and economic success has also been confirmed by a study carried out by the Assembly of European Regions. Decentralisation also removes excessive bureaucratic hurdles, by enabling and stimulating co-operation without regulating every possible detail.

It certainly makes sense politically: “proximity governance” provides better opportunities for political participation of citizens and serves their interests in the most tangible way. It also provides greater transparency and accountability of elected representatives, thus filling in many of institutional deficits of democracy mentioned in the Assembly report.

In this context, the new concept of multilevel governance takes this recognition of local and regional authorities to a next level – the level of equal partners with national governments.

The new concept outlines the relationship between the principle of subsidiarity and multilevel governance: the first indicates the responsibilities of the different tiers of government, while the other provides a framework for their interaction. It gives us a possibility to build upon the achievements of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the implementation of which already ensured a legal basis for multilevel governance within a member State.

One objective of multilevel governance is to apply the Charter’s principles to relations between the EU, the member State and the subnational level (local and regional). Once the sharing of responsibilities between these levels is defined from the viewpoint of effectiveness and efficiency, another objective is to establish a mechanism for coordinating their action within a partnership of equal players, rather than through a classical system of hierarchical subordination. This would entail joint participation of the different tiers of government in policy-making, joint ownership of these policies and their joint implementation.

Multilevel governance must also be understood also as a process for integrating the objectives of local and regional authorities within the strategies of the European construction – a process that the Congress has been advocating and advancing at the level of Council of Europe member states throughout its existence.

Another future prospect is involving local and regional authorities in the implementation of human rights in their communities. For the greater part of history of human rights, their delivery has been seen as a matter for national authorities. And yet, the realisation of human rights takes place in the concrete environment of our communities and is a prerequisite of democracy and good governance as much at local and regional level as it is at the national. By delivering social services and services of general interest, local and regional authorities are already implementing on a daily basis much of human rights principles and standards set out in international treaties.

And, of course, there will always be the continuous work of improvement of the situation at hand, because democracy-building is never finished. A lot has been achieved over the past decades, making unstoppable the immense movement of decentralisation, which is underway in Europe today. However, the good health of local democracy and the quality of local governance still varies in Europe, and we all must pursue our efforts to bring about further improvement. The Congress of the Council of Europe is there to ensure this through its monitoring of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

The monitoring experience of the Congress shows that local self-government in many member states of the Council of Europe is still fragile, characterised by a rather weak legislative framework and rather arbitrary administrative practices. If we are to draw lessons from this experience, I would emphasise four major points.

First, there must be a clear delimitation of competences for each level of government set in law, for local and regional authorities to have fixed responsibilities and tasks. Second, adequate local and regional financing must be ensured to match these responsibilities, as the insufficiency of funds for territorial authorities is a major shortcoming across Europe. Third, we need practical measures to guarantee genuine independence of local and regional authorities and non-interference in their decision-making from higher levels. This point is underpinned by the first two, and goes to the heart of the problem: you cannot create a community of equal partners in a framework of multilevel governance when some depend on others for competences, money and decision-making authority.

Finally, we must provide a framework for greater citizen participation and innovation at local and regional level. I have already mentioned the protocol on democratic participation at local level; I would also refer you to the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level, adopted by the Council of Europe in 2007, which essentially sets out the principles of relations between authorities and citizens at the community level. I should point as well to our recent initiative, the European Local Democracy Week, which is proving to be an excellent tool for involving citizens and having them enter into dialogue with their local authorities.

Increased participation of citizens will also make it possible to tap into their potential for innovation, which is an important tool of good governance. In this regard, modern technologies and e-tools offer opportunities for creating a new environment for consultation and participation, the “citizen environment”, in the framework of e-democracy – which could include, for example, e-voting and provision of e-services.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe grew out of our common conviction that democratic Europe is being built every day in our communities, in our villages, towns, cities and regions – at the level closest to the citizen, which is the first line of defence of their rights, the level where public services can be delivered most efficiently and where our action yields the most tangible results.

Twenty-five years ago, this conviction found its reflection in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The Charter’s implementation in Italy over the past twenty years is resounding proof that this is the right approach.

However, as I have said, this work is never done. Today, we must look for new ways to take our action further, because a Europe of Multilevel Governance, a Europe of Sustainable Communities is not a reality yet. For the next years, the Congress will not seek to promote new legal instruments, but to have member states ratify all the articles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and reduce the number of reservations. With all member states bound by certain articles of the Charter, we hope to come to a more coherent pan-European acquis for local and regional democracy in 47 countries.

I wish this conference every success.

Thank you.