International Conference - “European regions with special status: strengths and prospects”

Madeira, Portugal, 15 November 2010

Speech by Keith Whitmore, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you here, on these beautiful islands of Madeira, for a conference on regions that enjoy special status, a special legal regime and a particular autonomy within a state – such as the Madeira Region.

I wish to thank the organisers of this conference, first and foremost the President of the Region, Mr Alberto Joao JARDIM, for giving us this opportunity to have a first-hand experience with the subject matter so to speak on the ground. I know that this has been your wish, President JARDIM, for quite some time, and I am certainly pleased to see it come to fruition.

It is also a special pleasure for me to open this conference in my new capacity as President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which is a co-organiser of this event. For those of you who are not familiar with this institution, the Congress is a political assembly of local and regional elected politicians from 47 European countries, who represent more than 200,000 territorial communities of our continent. As an institution within the Council of Europe, the Congress has direct access to national governments of the 47 member states, with which we maintain permanent dialogue and which are obliged to react to our recommendations. I strongly hope that the deliberations of this conference will give rise to further proposals from the Congress for improving the situation of regional governance in Europe.

This conference itself has been inspired by a round table on special status of regional autonomy in Europe, organised by the Chamber of Regions of our Congress two years ago, in December 2008. The round table featured notably the participation of President JARDIM, as well as representatives of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia, the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia in Moldova. The Congress takes particular pride for having helped to negotiate special status for this latter region in the 1990s.

The round table showed a clear need to look in depth at the situation of regions with special status, and their legal regime. Most of them have very specific common characteristics as island or remote territories, peripheral regions or regions with important minority populations in relation to the rest of the country. They usually have a very broad and strong autonomy within their state, and many of them are endowed with either legislative or executive powers, or both. The objective of this conference is to compare their situations, their legal frameworks and their experiences, which will help us to advance with our work on regionalisation and regional autonomy in Europe, and to formulate proposals to both governments and regional authorities for further improvement.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Congress has been following the situation of regions with special status for quite some time, as part of its overall work on regionalisation. Allow me to take a brief look at the history of this work and, most importantly, the philosophy behind it.

We in the Congress are convinced of the crucial role played by regions in the development of a state – their role in underpinning national economic development, their political role in national policy-making, and their social role of attending to the needs of the people living in their territories. 

The history of relationships between regions and the national centre has proved that providing regions with a special status of autonomy, up to – but not necessarily including – giving them legislative and executive powers is the best way of maintaining an optimal power balance throughout the nation. Placing regional resources under control of the same very regions is also a way of ensuring their optimal use, as regional authorities are best placed to provide for their efficient allocation based on local needs.

It rings even more true today, when local democracy and local and regional self-government are recognised as a constituent part of any democratic system. The European Charter of Local Self-Government, adopted in 1985, laid down the principle of subsidiarity, under which governing responsibilities must be transferred to the level where they can be fulfilled most efficiently, the level closest to the citizen. This applies to both local communities and regional structures. Power-sharing with regions is therefore a required condition of democratic development today.

Regional democracy also allows for increased citizen participation and therefore improved governance and territorial cohesion – these are the added value of a move towards regionalisation. In this context, special autonomy status helps to respond better to citizens' aspirations, especially in cases when citizens do not wish to be assimilated or to accept homogenous rules. This is why special status should be tailor-made for the region.

In addition, special status serves as a counterbalance to separatism, because it offers an option for a negotiated solution of questions related to a territory, as a sound alternative to conflict. It is our argument that far from fuelling the desire for secession, the special status for regions today makes the state stronger and more stable, by bringing the needed balance to the power relationship between the centre and the territories, thus reducing the potential for conflict or contributing to the resolution of conflicts when they flare up.

The Congress has been advocating this position since 1998, when we first adopted a recommendation on territorial autonomy and national minorities. Only a year later, the Congress went further with its proposals in a recommendation on local law and special status, in which we asked national governments to envisage different forms of special status for regions with specific characteristics, as a way to seeking solutions to conflicts in Europe.

We argued then, and continue to argue today that the granting of special status is a way of ensuring, on the one hand, that cultural diversity within a state is not considered as a threat and, on the other hand, that the state is not perceived as a threat by every minority living on its territory.

The existence of different forms of special status in a number of European countries today has demonstrated that it is possible and feasible to manage the differences within a state through legislation, without undermining that state's unity and coherence. On the contrary: the existence of different forms of special status, which reflect specific requirements of a territory and its population, lead to greater integration than that produced by uniform or unitary systems. It is our experience that where they exist, these forms of special territorial autonomy remain compatible with the unity of the state and may also help to preserve its territorial integrity.

In parallel, the Congress has been working to provide a legal basis for regional governance and its different models, in the form of a binding treaty similar to the Charter of Local Self-Government. In 2008, we adopted the draft European Charter on Regional Democracy, which recognised the need for having different types of regional status. This text, which was not accepted by the Committee of Ministers as a European convention, served however as a basis for the “Regional Framework for Regional Democracy”, approved by the Ministers responsible for local and regional governments in Utrecht in November 2009.

As a code of rights and duties of regional entities, this Framework has two principal functions: to serve as a source of inspiration when countries decide to establish or reform their regional authorities; and to act as a body of principles on which the Congress can rely in monitoring regional democracy in the Council of Europe member states.

Although it lacks the binding force of a convention, the 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 will also help governments to strike the best possible balance in the apportionment of powers and responsibilities among different tiers of government. We see it as an encouraging compromise and a new departure in our efforts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to open this conference by reiterating my conviction that regional diversity of Europe, which reflects its rich cultural and geographical diversity, is a source of strength for our continent. Regions with special status, much as other forms of regional autonomy, are indispensable players in a new system of governance which is beginning to take shape today – a system of multi-level governance, based on the clear delimitation of powers and shared responsibilities of different government levels acting as equal partners.

A year ago, the Congress already came out in support of regions with legislative powers – several of which enjoy special legal status – and their role in multi-level governance. I am confident that all regions with special status, being in tune with specific needs of European citizens, will find their rightful place in this new system, in the new national/regional and even European/regional balance that it will bring about.

I am sure that this conference will provide further input into this process, and will contribute to enriching the work of the Congress and to preparing a new report on this subject. I wish you constructive and fruitful discussions today.

Thank you.