General Assembly of CALRE,  l’Aquila (Italy) 24-26 November 2011.

Speech by Günther Krug, member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

President Pagano, Ladies and gentlemen,

I should like to thank you for having invited the Congress of Local and Regional authorities of the Council of Europe to this General Assembly in l’Aquila and I convey the greetings of the Congress’ President of the Chamber of Regions, Dr Herwig Van Staa who is unfortunately unable to participate.

Allow me also to welcome President Pagano’s decision to organise this event in l’Aquila, which was hit by the terrible earthquake of 2009. I am sure that the force of will of the local population, with the support and the solidarity of the Italian authorities, will realize the reconstruction of the city.  

The Congress has always followed very closely the Conference of European Regional Assemblies. Still last July, we were pleased to be in Pescara, represented by the Secretary general of the Congress Andreas Kiefer, for the successful workshop on the Dynamics of European regionalism.

CALRE succeeded in establishing a successful network among European regional parliaments and has been able to improve the dialogue between regions with legislative powers and the European institutions and among the regions themselves.

We are all aware of the importance of regional democracy across Europe and of the need to involve the regions in the European decision making process.  We all know that the regional level of government increases the opportunities for citizens to participate in decision-making processes and in public affairs. Regional governance ensures that policies reflect regional cultural identities, with which citizens can identify. Own policies of the regions are essential if we want to give real meaning to the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and proximity.

The Congress activities have very much to do with CALRE aims and objectives. We monitor the commitments of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states in the fields of local and regional democracy. We adopt concrete recommendations for improving the situation of self-government and ensure a follow-up to our proposals of cooperation projects on local and regional democracy matters in the member states concerned. We develop our relationship with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and participate in intergovernmental bodies dealing with legal instruments and the implementation of activities of relevance for regions and local authorities. We express the positions of regional and local authorities via recommendations and resolutions adopted by Congress members.

The Congress has closely followed the evolution of the regions in Europe,  in particular the regions that have legislative powers and also regions that have special status. Of course, we do not wish to impose a specific form of regionalisation. We do, indeed, respect the rich diversity of Europe’s regions based on different models. But, no matter how the internal governance levels of the states are conceived, the  systems should be guided by mutual co-operation and interaction between European, national, regional and local authorities; with due regard to the respective roles, functions and duties.

As a matter of fact, if we consider our common goals of strengthening the role of regions and reflecting their responsibilities at local, national and international level, CALRE and the Congress of the Council of Europe do have scope for close cooperation.

Coming to the current challenges, we do know that presently with the Euro crisis, the European Union and its Member States are experiencing considerable difficulties. Of course the present economic crises has a global impact but still, Europe is under the storm now and everybody agrees that  new approaches and new efforts are needed from all the governance levels and from all the levels of societies for tackling the crisis.

But the question for us is:  what can regions do for contributing to overcome the present economic difficulties ?

The European regions receive more and more responsibilities concerning public expenditure, but they do not always have the means for fulfilling their tasks at the best.  Regions (and municipalities with them) should keep their expenditure under control and respect the internal stability pacts. At the same time, regions, have very often the status of economic poles and should try to sustain the growth while providing the citizens with a sufficient level of social and public services.

These are not easy tasks !   

But, if we want to paraphrase John Fitzgerald Kennedy, we should not ask what the states should do, but rather ask what the contribution of the regions could be.

I believe that one thing that regions can definitely do, beyond the financial means - they may, or may not have – is the implementation of good governance methods and make sub-national administrations efficient, result oriented and fully respectful of the rule of law.

  

In this respect, I would like to welcome President Pagano’s recent initiative of studying,  within a self-assessment method, the functioning of the European regional legislative assemblies. It is a concrete sign - coming from the political level itself - of the wish to contribute to the improvement of the daily work of both politicians and public officials. The transparency, the accessibility and the efficiency of regional Parliaments, pursued by this initiative, definitely go in the right direction. I do share the objective of making regional legislative Assemblies more efficient and I am also sure that this initiative can contribute to strengthen the role of regions and regional democracy in  Europe. Please keep us informed on the progress you are making.

In addition, I would also like to welcome the CALRE initiative of  carrying out a path of direct dialogue and assistance - at regional level - between regions from the European Union member states and other European countries.

The Council of Europe devotes considerable efforts to the countries that wish to become members of the European Union and can give its contribution to support synergies between Western and Eastern European regions.

I have to recognise that after the signature of the cooperation agreement between CALRE and the Congress, last year, CALRE immediately demonstrated reactivity by proposing this concrete action of institution building, which goes in the direction of the Council of Europe’s priorities and know-how. 

The idea of twinning regional Assemblies with legislative powers to regions that have a different organisation makes sense to me. Of course, we cannot deny that our wish is to promote the regional legislative regional assemblies model, but for this we also count on the historical trend of the last 50 years, that consisted of democratically shifting the responsibilities (and powers that go with) from national to sub-national levels. 

Allow me to conclude, Mr. President,  by thanking you again for this invitation to l’Aquila. As Italy welcomes us to-day for this General Assembly I would like to say that I firmly believe that Italy is following the right path for rescuing itself (and the European partners), from this sharp and contagious financial crises. 

I hope that to-day’s date will coincide with the date of rescue of the city of l’Aquila and of Italy as a whole.

Thank you for your attention.