Presentation Strategy- Responses to the recession across Europe
Workshop B -Susanne Caarls
People at the heart of local democracy
Wherever citizens choose to live, work and play, the quality of their lives will always be determined to a large extent by the quality of our local government.
Citizens want and deserve a public authority that takes their needs and hopes seriously, that looks into the quality of their lives and tries to improve them. Participation should be accessible to all, enabling a variety of voices to be heard, not only in the run-up to elections, but throughout a local council’s term of office, when public services are defined, organised and redefined.
Citizens want their local authority to respect the law, but also to improve its services continuously, and to keep in step with the times. Many of the public services citizens use will be delivered by their local authority in return for local taxes. Good quality services provided by a local authority that is transparent, accountable and responsive are therefore our legitimate citizen expectations.
Effective local democracy: a wise investment…
Effective, transparent, accountable local government is not a luxury but a wise investment. A local authority that listens to citizens, respects their diversity and caters for those in need shows that it cares about its community, its well-being and the results it delivers. Citizens want to live in areas that are secure, clean, diverse, with good educational opportunities, safe roads, adequate public transport, recreational areas for their children, easy access to information, etc.
Effective democracy and good governance at all levels are essential for our societies. They help prevent conflict, promote stability, minimise waste, facilitate economic and social progress, and are necessary for creating sustainable communities where we all want to live and work.
The role of the Council of Europe
The Council of Europe encourages the ongoing improvement of the quality of democracy at all levels, starting at the local level. It urges governments to put in place the policies and tools which help local authorities run their affairs more effectively. It supports local authorities that genuinely commit themselves to effective democratic governance. Through the Council of Europe, European local authorities and their associations can exchange experience and practice and learn from each other.
Moreover, the Council of Europe recognises authorities that meet the targets of good governance. It does all this through “the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance”, its own European Label, in which all local authorities can take part. “The Strategy’s” consists of 12 principles which cover the fundamental values of European democracy and form the complete spectrum of requirements for good democratic governance. Local authorities from all 47 Council of Europe member States should be able to use the Strategy to improve their governance on a continual basis.
The 12 principles of good governance, I will not cover them all here, include Openness and Transparency, Innovation and Openness to change, Accountability and Sustainability. Principle 3 is Efficiency and Effectiveness. What do we mean by that?
1. We mean that results meet the agreed objectives
2. That the best possible use is made of the resources available
3. That performance management systems make it possible to evaluate and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of service
4. and that audits are carried out at regular intervals to assess and improve performance.
The Label
In order to reward local authorities that achieve a high overall level of governance, as measured against the Twelve European Principles of Good Democratic Governance, a European Label of Governance Excellence has been developed.The Label is awarded nationally through an independent selection panel for assessing the overall quality of governance of applicant local authorities against the 12 principles.
The Label has additionally been conceived as a learning tool and should help local authorities to:
- understand their strengths and weaknesses in the way they provide public services to the local community and in the way they exercise public authority;
- improve the quality of local governance with the help of the various tools developed specifically for the Strategy;
- take inspiration from their colleagues' best practice
The Label for good governance is thus both an acknowledgement of achievement and a powerful learning and improving tool.
The Label is symbolised by a crystal dodecahedron with the Twelve European Principles of Good Democratic Governance and the Council of Europe logo engraved on its faces. A regular dodecahedron is a shape with twelve identical pentagonal faces. It is the fifth and the most important of the Platonic solids and, during history, has often been thought of as symbolising perfection. Some semi-crystals naturally appear in a dodecahedral form. (show example).
The European Label for Governance Excellence is not awarded directly by the Council of Europe, but by national (or, in federal and quasi-federal states, regional) organisations accredited by the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe Stakeholders’ Platform – which comprises representatives of national governments, local authorities, parliaments and NGOs – is responsible for accrediting national/regional bodied that offer every guarantee of competence, impartiality and sustainability.
In order to receive the European Label, the municipality must apply to this national or regional stakeholders’ platform. It will be asked to fulfil the criteria of the evaluation tools:
- a self assessment matrix evaluating the action of the local authority on each of the 12 principles;
- a questionnaire addressed to citizens;
- and a questionnaire addressed to local elected representatives.
The municipality will also be asked to show proof some of the conclusions which it has drawn and an expert visit to the municipality may also be arranged to verify the appropriateness of the replies given to the benchmark and questionnaires. It is important to realize that participating local authorities are expected to become "learning municipalities", thus municipalities that take part or plan to take part in programmes aimed at learning from the others.
The decision to award the Label of Governance Excellence will be taken by the national/regional stakeholders’ platform. The Label is granted for a limited duration and the municipality should therefore re-apply after a certain amount of time.
Current situation
A lot has been done and achieved since the Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe have adopted the Strategy in Valencia in 2007.
1. We have developed a benchmark in order to measure the level of good governance of each municipality. This benchmark has been tested by different municipalities in Norway, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy and the European Stakeholders Platform has recently approved it.
2. We have established a clear set of rules and procedures for the national or regional stakeholdersplatforms which should assist member states to ask for accreditation for rewarding the Label of Governance Excellence to their municipalities. The European Stakeholders Platform also has approved these recently.
3. Several countries are very eager to implement the Strategy and start using the tools. Bulgaria is currently working very hard to finalise their application and hopes to receive it’s accreditation this year so that it should be able to reward the first Labels of Governance Excellence in March next year. They will then be the first country! Other countries which are enthusiastic are Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine. We expect their accreditation at the end of this year or early next year.
The central question is if the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance and the Label of Governance Excellence contribute to the challenges local authorities are facing today? In my opinion: Yes. Citizens have a vested interest in the quality of local governance. They expect and deserve that the quality of public services they receive is good, that the local authority listens to them and takes their needs and legitimate expectations to heart.
They also have the right to know whether the quality of local governance delivered to them is up to European standards. And they have a direct interest in the continual improvement of this governance and I believe that that the Strategy for Innovation and good Governance together with the Label of Governance Excellence are good tools which can and will help local authorities face the current challenges.
Thank you for your attention and I wish you a fruitful discussion.