Award Ceremony for the Maximillian Prize

Award Ceremony for the Maximilian Prize

(Innsbruck, Austria, 2 June 2012)

Statement by President Keith Whitmore

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Dear President Van Staa,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

It is with the feeling of great honour and pride that I accept this award, and I wish to thank Dr Van Staa, President of the Tyrol Regional Parliament who is also President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress, for his kind words.

I also would like to express my gratitude to the Land of Tyrol, the City of Innsbruck and to you, Dr Van Staa, personally, for the unwavering commitment to awarding the Maximilian Prize since 1998, which has become an admirable tradition.

I see this Prize not only as the recognition of my personal efforts and work for making local and regional self-government a genuine political force in Europe, and for turning the Congress, this unique assembly of local and regional elected representatives, into a true partner of national governments and parliaments in the European construction.

I see this award first and foremost as the recognition of the undeniable, fundamental value of local and regional democracy itself – the grassroots democracy, which offers the best opportunities for citizen participation so much needed today, and which presents the best possibilities for working for and with citizens for the betterment of our communities and our societies. Local and regional democracy is rightly called a landmark of European democratic development, and its spectacular advance across this continent has been driven through the past almost six decades by the hard work of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and its partner institutions.

Today, I am standing here proud to have been part of this democratic process for more than 30 years, as a member of the Manchester City Council, a member of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, and a member of the Congress over the past almost two decades – 16 years. I am proud because I could personally participate in the creation of a decentralised system of governance in Europe, embedding democracy firmly in our towns, cities and regions, building governance of proximity to our citizens, and empowering our communities to take up the challenges faced by European societies.

As a local politician, I have had a privilege of bearing personal witness to such milestones as the adoption of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in 1985 and later its Protocol on citizen participation; advancement of regionalisation through the work on a draft Charter of Regional Democracy which was transformed into the Council of Europe Reference Framework for Regional Democracy; tremendous progress in cross-border co-operation, through the creation of Euroregions and other interregional groupings, through additional protocols to the Madrid Convention on transfrontier co-operation, and through growing intermunicipal co-operation based on European municipal networks.

This process of decentralisation, this devolution of power has been part and parcel of European unification and integration, made possible by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Communist regimes in Europe, and boosted by three successive summits of Heads of State and Government of Council of Europe member states. This process gained momentum as the Council of Europe, and its Congress, enlarged, taking in new members from central and eastern Europe.

Local and regional authorities, and our Congress as their representative voice at European level, have been playing an increasingly important role in this process, participating in the summits on a par with national governments, contributing the results of their work at the grassroots, and earning themselves a growing recognition as equal governing partners.

Today, when I look back at my career in the Congress, this remarkable assembly, I am proud to have been part of this process because I was able to contribute my energy and my ideas to the Congress’ mission of upholding, defending and promoting the value of local democracy, its mission of consolidating and moving forward the system of decentralised governance – not least through the implementation of the Local Self-Government Charter – and of making local and regional self-government stronger, and truly representative of our citizens.

And I am equally proud to have participated into turning the Congress into what it has become today: a consultative, monitoring and operational body of the Council of Europe, fully engaged with the intergovernmental sector and other partners in improving the governance of our communities and the quality of life of our citizens – today, in particular, through the implementation of the Agenda in common approved last November by Ministers responsible for local and regional government in Council of Europe member states.

We have seen success in convincing national governments that local and regional authorities today are much more than mere service providers, responsible for the delivery of public services to citizens. Empowered through decentralisation with a wide range of competences in very many different fields, they are fully involved in policy-making and policy implementation in their communities, and make a crucial contribution, from their experience on the ground, to shaping national and European policies.

We have seen success in advocating the role of local and regional authorities in promoting and implementing human rights in their communities, in creating conditions for their full exercise at the grassroots – something that had been regarded before as a prerogative of national governments alone.

We have seen success in putting forward an agenda for enhancing citizen participation in democracy, starting at the grassroots, and we are contributing to the debate on the future model of European democracy, amid the crisis of public confidence in democratic institutions – a model with elements of direct democracy, a model centred on the citizen. To respond to the need for dialogue between citizens and public authorities, we have launched an initiative of bringing together local residents and community leaders, which has become since 2007 a truly pan-European annual event. I am speaking about the European Local Democracy Week, of which I have always been a staunch supporter, and I am very pleased to have been the Political Coordinator for the Local Democracy Week until my election as Congress President.

Our views on today’s challenges to European democracy have been taken on board in the report “Living together: Combining freedom and diversity in 21^st century Europe”, published last year by the Council of Europe Group of Eminent Persons.

I had the privilege of contributing to the preparation of the report on behalf of the Congress, and I am pleased that the Eminent Persons have underlined the crucial role of local and regional authorities as the principal actor in ensuring citizen participation, promoting local integration and fostering intercultural dialogue in their communities, for a better cohesion of our diverse societies.

Overall, and most importantly, we have seen success in reasserting ourselves as equal partners of national governments and parliaments in an emergent system of multi-level governance, based on shared responsibilities and clearly defined competences and roles for each stakeholder. This new system should underpin the new model of participatory democracy which is taking shape in Europe today.

Over the years, the Congress grew within the Council of Europe’s institutional architecture from a kind of “poor relation” to a force to be reckoned with, a major stakeholder in the intra-institutional meeting set up by Council of Europe Secretary General Jagland – together with the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Commissioner for Human Rights. Today, we have established a constant dialogue with the Committee of Ministers through regular exchanges of views with Permanent Representatives in Strasbourg and their Rapporteur Groups. Today, the Congress is not only a more pertinent political assembly but also an action-driven and result-oriented operational body.

From the Ministerial Conference in Utrecht in 2009 to the following one in Kyiv last year, the Congress has also become a valuable interlocutor of Ministers responsible for local and regional government, shaping together an Agenda in common and now fully involved in implementing its five priorities of responding to the economic crisis, boosting citizen participation, promoting human rights at local level, fostering multi-level governance and advancing cross-border co-operation.

In addition, through our monitoring and post-monitoring activities, we are engaged in direct political dialogue with national governments in designing action plans to assist member states with overcoming the existing problems in the field of local and regional democracy.

In other words, as I said in an exchange with the Committee of Ministers last November, the Congress today is very different from what it used to be when it often worked on the margin than rather tackling the core issues of the Council of Europe. Today, in a dialogue with governments, we listen, we talk, we contribute, and we deliver. Today, the Congress as a representative assembly of local and regional authorities and politicians has a new role to play in the current situation in Europe and in member states, that calls for putting our public action under the sign of solidarity, for joining our forces in responding to the common challenges that we are facing.

As local and regional politicians, we do represent the interests of our communities, and in particular of making sure that the distribution of means and resources corresponds to the distribution of competences, and is not to the detriment of the grassroots level. However, today we also have new responsibilities, responsibilities for living together in dignity – and particularly for playing our part in ensuring coherence of action between the different levels of governance, for making sure that local and regional authorities act and pursue the same key objectives and priorities as national governments and the European institutions, each within their respective remit.

Our emphasis on promoting human rights at the grassroots, on fostering democratic citizenship and intercultural dialogue to deal better with cultural diversity, on increasing citizen participation and on pursuing local integration for better social cohesion – these are different aspects of our efforts to make local and regional action meet national and European priorities of the day. Today, this is the key message of the Congress – responsibility in common, solidarity, coherence: every actor has to play its role and to contribute. This is also what multi-level governance is all about.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If the Congress is different today, it is due to the broad and comprehensive reform which we have undertaken over the past four years, being the first Council of Europe body to launch a reform process. The reform meant refocusing Congress priorities, changing its working methods and adapting its structures to the new imperatives, and this has been successfully achieved. Our current orientation on specific needs of communities and on concrete and targeted action to respond to these needs has made the Congress more relevant for local and regional authorities and European citizens.

When I assumed the Presidency of the Congress two years ago, I made a commitment to see the reform through its implementation stage, to steer a new, reformed Congress for the next two years, and to reaffirm and strengthen its role as the voice of our cities and regions and the guardian of local and regional democracy in Europe. It has been a great challenge but also a great opportunity for me to be President in the crucial moment of the Congress’ history, as it crossed over to a new era when we adopted the reform package. I have led the Congress with an open heart and an open mind, and I am proud to see the reform bear fruit today.

I would like to thank all members of the Congress for their support and active participation in this process, and in particular former President of the Congress Halvdan Skard and former Vice-President Günther Krug, who were rapporteurs on the reform and who have pursued this process to its completion. I also wish to express my gratitude to Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress and your fellow countryman, who was also elected in the midst of the reform process and who successfully rose up to the challenge, carrying out his duties with great skill and vigour. Through Secretary General Kiefer, I thank of course all members of the Congress Secretariat who helped me in my work and made my duties as President so much easier.

I see this Prize as the recognition of this collective effort, and a sign of continuity in our work for local and regional democracy. I refer to those previous winners of the Maximilian Prize who are also former Presidents of the Congress: Alain CHENARD [sheh-NAHR] in 2003, Giovanni DI STASI in 2009 and Halvdan SKARD in 2010 (who, as I have just said, was among the initiators of the Congress reform).

Today, I wish to thank them all for their contribution to the cause of local and regional democracy and for making the Congress what it is today.

I accept this award on behalf of all those committed to building a better grassroots democracy for our citizens.

Thank you.