Best Practice Award for European Coastal Towns Award Ceremony

Blackpool, United Kingdom, 9 May 2012

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

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you here, on British soil, in the beautiful coastal town of Blackpool, for the final chapter of what will become known as the very first edition of the European Best Practice Award Programme for Coastal Towns.

Today, we will recognise the best projects which participated in the competition, and I particularly welcome here the representatives of local authorities whose efforts and ingenuity in regenerating their coastal communities have rightfully earned them a nomination for the Best Practice Award.

But first and foremost, I wish to thank the authorities of Blackpool and the Local Government Association of the UK, in particular Mr Dragutin DJEKOVIC, for organising this event, this Award Ceremony, within a very short time period of just several months of the UK Chairmanship of the Council of Europe.

My special thanks go also to the Blackpool team for a very informative study tour of this town, which gave all of us an opportunity to see the concrete results of local government efforts for the coastal area development.

Such study visits, such information-sharing is indeed the main reason why this Best Practice Award Programme was launched in the first place by the Council of Europe in January this year, in the framework of the UK Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

The objective of this initiative has been to reward best local practices for the regeneration of coastal towns. The Programme has been carried out by the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, in partnership with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the Parliamentary Assembly, the UK Chairmanship as well as the future Albanian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers – all bodies of the Council of Europe – as well as with the UK Local Government Association and the European Institute for Public Administration.

Their representatives made up the Steering Committee of the Programme, which I had the honour of chairing. I welcome here today those members of the Steering Committee who have been able to come to Blackpool for this event, and I would like to express my gratitude to all of them, together with the secretariat of this project as well as our experts which provided the evaluation of the submitted projects, for their commitment and hard work in this very short timeframe to make this initiative a success.

I wish to thank my compatriots Ambassador Eleanor FULLER, Permanent Representative of the UK in the Council of Europe, and Sir Alan MEALE, General Rapporteur for local and regional authorities of the Parliamentary Assembly, as well as Assembly Vice-President Bernard MARQUET of Monaco;

Deputy Interior Minister of Albania Ferdinand PONI,

Congress Secretary General Andreas KIEFER,

Council of Europe Director of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity Robert PALMER,

Expert of the European Institute for Public Administration Alexander HEICHLINGER,

Advisor of the UK Local Government Association Dragutin DJEKOVIC, whom I have already mentioned, as well as

Alfonso ZARDI and Daniel POPESCU of the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Best Practice Programme has been designed as a scheme to recognise, award and disseminate best practices in improvement and development at the local and regional level that bring real benefits to citizens, in order to raise standards through peer learning and knowledge transfer.

The main reason behind the Programme was that today, many European costal communities are facing downward trends. The coast has always been a popular place to live, work or visit. Coastal towns are part of the economic and historical heritage of many countries in Europe, a national asset and a significant opportunity. However, today, many coastal communities that were thriving at some point in history are facing decline.

Traditional coastal industries have declined, combined with unfavourable demographic changes and natural influences such as coastal erosion and flooding. Many of these coastal towns are also facing serious problems due to the economic and financial crisis.

At the same time, against this sombre background, there are also many coastal local authorities in European countries that achieve high standards in a wide range of areas. Many of them innovate and successfully experiment with new and interesting solutions to problems which are common to many local communities. Thus, the aim of this Programme has been to identify, celebrate and award local authorities with such practices and consequently make that knowledge and experience available for sharing with other local authorities.

It has been our conviction that participation in the Programme will help local authorities to review their practices at first on their own, and then against the experiences of their counterparts in other coastal areas and in that way offer the opportunity for improvement.

We are confident that communication with colleagues from other coastal towns will help the creation of a wide support network of local authorities and professionals facing similar issues, offering  municipalities access to the data base of successful case studies.

I am sure that the representative of the Centre for Local Government Reform will say more about the objectives and next steps of the Programme. The Centre has built substantial experience over the years implementing similar projects to improve local governance, which also made possible the successful implementation of this coastal towns initiative.

But before we proceed with this ceremony, it is great pleasure for me to recall the names of those authorities who will be awarded today for their projects. I have already had the privilege of announcing them, together with President of the Parliamentary Assembly Jean-Claude MIGNON, during the Assembly session in Strasbourg on April 26.

They are – and pardon my bias for beginning with the host country of this event:

From the United Kingdom – Bournemouth, Canterbury, East Riding of Yorkshire, Southampton, and Great Yarmouth that received two nominations for two submitted projects;

From Ukraine – Odessa and Yevpatoria;

From Spain – Aviles [ah-vee-LESS] and a Special Certificate to the only province which submitted an application in the competition – the Province of Barcelona – to encourage innovative practices in support of coastal towns at the provincial and regional level;

From Norway – Herøy;

From Greece – Heraklion;

From France – Le Havre;

And from Croatia - Bibinje [bee-bee-NYE], Murter Kornati [MOOR-ter

kor-NAH-ti] and Zadar [zah-DAR].

In addition, several non-European applications were admitted and evaluated on the same criteria as everyone else.

Among those, the project from Ashkelon in Israel has received as high a score as other nominees in the general competition.

I congratulate you and I look forward to the honour of presenting to you the awards later tonight.

Thank you.