ALDA General Assembly 2012

Udine, Italy, 7-8 June 2012

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

Mayor Honsell

President Vinther

President Tondo

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to address this General Assembly, and I would like to thank the organisers for keeping up this good tradition of exchanges between the Congress and ALDA, in the spirit of our continuing co-operation. I would like to thank in particular President Per VINTHER for his steadfast commitment to the Association and his hard work as its President for these past four years, and I am pleased with regular contact which we maintain with you, Mr President, and the ALDA secretariat.

The Congress and the Association, of course, share a bond which is almost parental, as the Congress played a major role in setting up Local Democracy Agencies – LDAs – which have grown into a genuine network that is ALDA. The Congress always gave its full support to ALDA, and I should add that today’s activities of the Association, seeking to promote, at a local level, active citizenship, civic participation and democratic pluralism are in synch with the current priorities of the Congress.

Over the past 13 years of its existence, the activities of ALDA have evolved, as did its expanding network of LDAs, reaching into the South Caucasus. Its work and the experience gained during its operations at the grassroots have proved both useful and necessary, and remain today as vital as they were 13 years ago.

The cooperation between ALDA and the Congress has been evolving, too, as the network was gaining maturity, and as the Congress and the Council of Europe as a whole have engaged in a major broad reform to refocus its priorities and its operational activities. As a result of these reforms of the past several years, we are now concentrating our financial support on selected activities duly approved by the Congress Bureau and corresponding to the immediate needs of local and regional communities.

For example, the Congress has in the recent years supported the Association’s activities in the South Caucasus, in particular the opening of an LDA in Armenia, and contributed to its action aimed at strengthening grassroots co-operation in that region, through the so-called Kutaisi process.

There are several other examples where ALDA and the Congress could build synergies for mutual benefit and mutual reinforcement of their activities.

First, the Congress is currently targeting its action on a concrete follow-up to its monitoring and election observation recommendations, through co-operation programmes with national and grassroots authorities to help them overcome the existing problems. We hope to be able to count on Local Democracy Agencies as partners in this regard, and could envisage co-operation with ALDA in this framework, in particular in the countries where LDAs exist.

In this regard, the Congress welcomes the Association’s involvement in the Eastern Partnership process, in which we also participate through the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership, CORLEAP. We consider the participation of non-governmental organisations in this process, through the Civil Society Forum for Eastern Partnership, to be of major importance. Civil society organisations are Congress partners in assessing the situation of local and regional democracy and contributing to our recommendations. In addition, the database on the evolution of the Local Governments and Public Administration Reform could be of great use for the preparation of monitoring visits and the follow-up.

Second, ALDA’s activities to promote active citizenship and civic participation echo the Congress priority of enhancing citizen participation as a fundamental element of participatory democracy. The active engagement of citizens in democratic processes and decision-making at local level is a way forward for democracy-building, and it is even more important in the present context of the economic and financial crisis, when local government are facing unprecedented pressure of its impact. Here, too, we can find synergies in our action.

Third, democratic engagement in neighbouring countries represents another important area of potential co-operation. The Congress is currently fully participating in developing the Council of Europe neighbourhood policy, in particular by launching co-operation activities with Morocco and Tunisia. We are convinced that engaging local NGOs in this process is crucial for further development of democracy and for the constitution of a new political class, in particular in Tunisia, and I am pleased to see that this will be the subject of the conference this afternoon.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion, I would like to underline our conviction that the existing Local Democracy Agencies in South-East of Europe and in the South Caucasus have an important role to play, and that their activities need to be strengthened and developed further. We hope that in the future, they will become more visible, and will be recognised as major partners by local authorities in the relevant countries.

For its part, the Congress remains firmly supportive of ALDA and its work, and committed to pursuing our co-operation in the areas of common interest.

Thank you.