Northern IrelandLocal Government Association (NILGA)
2012 Annual Conference & Exhibition, Session and Panel Discussion on the
European Charter of Local Self-Government
Templepatrick, 23 February 2012
Speech by President Keith Whitmore, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear colleagues,
It is a great pleasure for me to address this annual conference today on behalf of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
The Congress has been championing the cause of local and regional democracy in Europe for more than 50 years, working for stronger local self-government and better governance of local communities on our continent.
More recently, the Congress and the Committee of the Regions of the European Union have joined efforts in pushing for a system of multi-level governance in Europe, based on a partnership between local, regional, national and European authorities, each respecting the others' spheres of responsibilities.
I am pleased to see that the role of local government in Europe today features prominently on the agenda of this conference. It is important for such discussions to be taken up within national associations of local authorities, such as NILGA.
National associations are the representative voice of local authorities and defenders of their interests vis-à-vis national governments, and the Congress sees them as its partners and main interlocutors in the national setting. We count on associations such as NILGA to serve as a bridge between the Congress and local authorities in each member state, to help us implement our proposals at the grassroots level, and to inform us about the situation of local democracy on the ground.
This is why the Congress holds regular consultations with national associations, and this is why they are closely involved in our procedure known as “monitoring” – the procedure of watching over the state of local and regional democracy in Europe.
The core part of this monitoring is assessing the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, a treaty which is the subject matter of this panel discussion. Before going into detail about the Charter itself, I would like to outline the main points of my presentation.
First: the European Charter of Local Self-Government is the first legally binding treaty in the field of local democracy. It is the oldest and most authoritative international text to lay down the principles of local democracy and the rights of local communities, which national governments have a legal obligation of upholding.
Second: One of the key principles of the Charter is known as the principle of subsidiarity, meaning that responsibilities for public services must be transferred to the level where these services can be delivered most efficiently.
This transfer must be accompanied by a transfer of the financial resources necessary to fulfil these tasks. This principle has been the driving force behind the transfer of competences to the local level and thus the decentralisation of power in Europe. It has also been recognised by the European Union for establishing the division of competences between the European, national and regional/local levels.
Third: the Charter has been ratified to date by 45 European countries, out of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. Monaco and San Marino are the only two states that have not yet done so. However, each country has the right to make certain reservations to the Charter’s application.
So, the United Kingdom, which ratified the Charter in 1997, excluded Northern Ireland from the scope of its application. It follows that the Charter today covers the whole of the European area except those two microstates (Monaco and San Marino), Belarus – which is not a member of the Council of Europe – and, regrettably, Northern Ireland.
Allow me now to explore these points in greater detail.
The importance of local and regional democracy, and self-government, as the foundation of any democratic system has been recognised by all stakeholders in the democratic process. It is at the level of our communities, in our cities and in our regions, where the concerns of our citizens are responded most directly, and the results of our political action are most tangible.
The strong movement of mayors in the 1950s-60s and then the regional movement in the 1970s in Europe brought to the fore the need for an effectively autonomous self-government, sufficiently independent to manage on its own public affairs at local and regional level. Without such independence, it was argued, there can be no effective self-government and therefore no efficient democracy at the grassroots level.
In addition, the growing complexity of the tasks faced by national governments forced them to share responsibilities with lower levels of governance. Governments today recognise that they can no longer efficiently cope alone with all issues at hand, and that solutions to even the most taxing problems require the necessary involvement of territorial communities and their authorities.
The global challenges facing society today – economic and financial crisis, democratic deficit, problems of integration and social cohesion, demographic change and migration, social upheavals or climate change – these all call for responses from local and regional level. As a result, the triumphant march of local and regional democracy across Europe and the decentralisation of power to the grassroots level have been a landmark of European democratic development, unparalleled in the world.
To put local governance on legal footing, the European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted in 1985, the first and cornerstone international treaty for local democracy. 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 45 European countries to date, has given a major boost to the devolution of power on our continent, releasing the potential of communities and empowering them to take up the many challenges facing our society.
First and foremost, the Charter recognises local self-government as a right of communities to manage their own affairs through freely elected bodies, a right that should be enshrined in the Constitution. The Charter reaffirms that it is at local level that the right of citizens to participate in the conduct of public affairs can be exercised most directly.
It lays down, for the first time in history, the principle that the responsibility for public services should be transferred to the level where they can be delivered most efficiently, the level closest to the citizen.
Article 4, paragraph 3 of the Charter reads: “Public responsibilities shall generally be exercised, in preference, by those authorities which are closest to the citizen. Allocation of responsibility to another authority should weigh up the extent and nature of the task and requirements of efficiency and economy.”
It is this key principle, which has become known as the principle of subsidiarity, and the consequent transfer of competences and financial means to the grassroots level that underlies the decentralisation of power which we are witnessing in Europe today. This principle has also been endorsed by the European Union.
The Charter stipulates that local authorities should have their own administrative structures, properly trained staff, and finances to match their competences. Most importantly, the Charter provides that local elected representatives should exercise their duties without interference from any other authority, national or regional.
Any supervision by higher levels should address the legality of local acts and decisions and their compliance with national laws – rather than the question of their expediency. It is not for higher levels to say whether or not such decisions were necessary or justified.
In addition, the Charter provides for proper consultations with local authorities when higher authorities take measures concerning them, and for the right of local authorities to defend their rights in court. Last but not least, it confirms the right of local authorities to set up their national and European associations.
I could go on with the list of Charter provisions – for example, the principle of financial equalisation, the right to borrow from markets or the provision that municipal boundaries may not be changed without prior approval by the local authorities concerned. I would rather invite you to read the text of the Charter itself, which is of course available online.
I would only add that in 2009, the Charter was complemented by an Additional Protocol on democratic participation in the affairs of a local authority, aimed to strengthen citizen participation at local level. This protocol comes into force on 1 June this year, but not in the UK, since the UK government has yet to sign it.
What is most important is that the Charter sets minimum standards for central governments when dealing with local affairs, guaranteeing a core of principles for local democracy. As such, this treaty can be seen as an equivalent of the European human rights convention for local communities, or a Magna Charta of local self-government.
Its entry into force heralded a new stage of democratic development on our continent, leading to a democracy which is more citizen-oriented, more participatory and therefore more effective. Beyond the recognition of the need for decentralisation, the Charter represents an evolution of our understanding of democracy, reflecting the conviction that local democracy is a constituent element of democracy itself, not just a tribute paid to the growing power of local authorities.
This new understanding acknowledges that the devolution of power towards local communities can release their potential and stir up action involving numerous actors at all levels of governance, making it possible to tackle the great challenges of today. Thus, local authorities become the first line of response to the issues of concern to our citizens.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the only European body charged with monitoring the implementation of the Local Self-Government Charter and thus the development of territorial democracy.
This is the core mission of the Congress, and 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.
Over the years, the Congress has gained considerable experience and knowledge of various models of local and regional self-government, various methods and practices of the Charter’s implementation, and tools for improving local democracy. As I said at the outset, we carry out this monitoring in close cooperation with national associations of local authorities, which provide us with information on the situation at the grassroots and suggest recommendations for improvement. National associations are our “early warning system” in their respective countries.
I should add that Congress recommendations, and its legal expertise of national legislation on local self-government, have helped many Council of Europe member states with their legal reforms in the field of local self-government.
Our current focus is on improving the follow-up to our monitoring recommendations, including stronger and closer political dialogue with all actors concerned – in particular national governments and local and regional authorities – to ensure that standards established by the Charter are being met and applied.
Through specific cooperation programmes with the countries concerned, the Congress is seeking to provide practical assistance in overcoming the shortcomings and problems identified in our country reports. Furthermore, one of the Congress’ priorities today is to convince member states to lift their reservations to the Charter, which is indispensable for a unified European space of common standards for local democracy.
We also continue to insist that the Charter be integrated into national legal systems, and we have been advancing with our assessment of the way and degree the Charter has been incorporated into domestic law of member states. The Congress adopted recommendations in this regard in October last year. In this regard, we are hoping to be able to convince the government of the United Kingdom to apply the Local Self-Government Charter to Northern Ire land. Today, Northern Ireland remains the only region in the Council of Europe area where local democracy is not legally protected by the Charter.
Yet, when the United Kingdom ratified the Charter in 1997, it specified that it was doing so ‘in recognition of the independent legitimacy of local government’. I am convinced that it is now time to extend this recognition to Northern Ireland as well.
The United Kingdom holds the chair of Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, from November 2011 until May this year. It is encouraging that its Chairmanship programme lists local democracy as one of its six priorities. And although the UK government in London argues that Northern Ireland is not yet ready for local democracy, we hope to see a change in this attitude and progress on this issue as part of the UK commitment to local self-government.
To sum up, these are the tasks on our agenda as we reaffirm our commitment to building a Europe of territorial communities, a Europe which enables citizens to take control of their destiny in the cities and regions that they inhabit.
This is the future of European democracy.
Thank you.