4th General Meeting of National Associations of Local and Regional Authorities

Strasbourg, 13 September 2012

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

Dear representatives of national and European associations,

Dear colleagues,

We are here today in keeping with the tradition of close co-operation and consultation between the Congress and associations of local and regional authorities, to help us better target and coordinate our action. It is in this spirit of reinforcing its partnership with associations that the Congress has been organising such General Meetings every two years for almost a decade. I am pleased to see this tradition continue, and this partnership alive, and I welcome you here today on behalf of the Congress for a new round of discussions on our priorities and further joint action.

It has often been said that associations serve as a bridge between the Congress, which operates at European level, and authorities at the grassroots in your respective member states. We do need indeed your engagement in translating our proposals for action into concrete activities on the ground in local and regional communities. We need your commitment in helping us to put pressure on national governments to implement our recommendations. We need your input into the preparation of our monitoring and thematic reports, and we are increasingly relying on questionnaires sent to you to collect information on the situation in your communities.

Over the past two years alone, it has been the case, for example, in preparing our reports and recommendations on the situation of Roma, on local and regional electoral systems, on the impact of the economic crisis as well as in collecting best practices for the regeneration of coastal towns – not to count your contribution to our monitoring activities.

Most importantly, associations have always played the role of an “early-warning system”, alerting us to the challenges faced by local and regional authorities and raising alarm over possible violations of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, prompting action and reaction by the Congress. Associations have been a valuable source of information for us, and we wish these different roles that I have just mentioned to be strengthened and expanded further.

It is even more so today when the reform of the Congress has entered its implementation stage, compelling us to target better our action, to be more result-oriented to provide a better follow-up to our recommendations. At the previous General Meeting of associations, in September 2010, we sought your input into our reform proposals in setting Congress priorities for the next two years.

I am pleased to say that today, we see concrete results from implementing the reform package that was adopted in October 2010, one of which is a stronger and more effective dialogue with both national governments and local and regional authorities in member states. The aim of this dialogue is to identify problem areas and priorities for action, to decide on possible joint activities to address them, and to carry out action for improvement.

One concrete result of this dialogue is an Agenda in common, approved by Ministers responsible for local and regional government at their conference in Kyiv in November last year. The Agenda set out priority areas where joining governmental and local and regional action would bring out maximum impact – such as responses to the economic crisis, promoting human rights at the grassroots, enhancing citizen participation, developing multi-level governance, and overcoming obstacles to advance cross-border co-operation. The overall objective is to improve governance of our communities, which would include such challenges as fighting corruption and strengthening the role of local and regional authorities in policy-making. Currently, the Committee of Ministers is discussing how to organise its work to ensure close co-operation with the Congress and the Parliamentary Assembly in implementing the issues of the Agenda in common.

We would like your associations to be part of this dialogue and joint action, especially in what concerns post-monitoring and post-election observation activities of the Congress. This specific follow-up to Congress proposals was introduced under its reform, and we are at the beginning of establishing concrete working methods and lines of action to carry it through. We count on the involvement of your associations in this regard, which is indispensable.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The current situation of the economic crisis and its impact on communities at the grassroots also strengthens the role of associations as unions representing and defending the interests of grassroots authorities vis-à-vis national governments, capable of engaging in consultation and negotiation with central authorities on behalf of the grassroots. The economic and financial crisis has brought to the fore the need for greater involvement of local and regional level in economic policy-making and planning anti-crisis measures, for greater coordination and solidarity between the different tiers of government. This puts national associations in a position of partners with national governments as a representative voice of local and regional authorities.

National associations also play the role of action multiplier when we are speaking about contribution to thematic activities of the Congress and the Council of Europe as a whole. In this regard, one of priority areas today is action to stop sexual violence against children, under the One in Five Campaign of the Council of Europe. The Congress has elaborated specific proposals in this field, which will be presented for discussion today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have outlined the context in which this General Meeting is taking place. You can see that its very packed agenda reflects the major issues of the current situation.

The main objective of this Meeting is to hear your views about the draft priorities for Congress action in the next four years, from 2013 to 2016. The four years correspond to the new four-year term of office of Congress members, instead of two years as before, which is also a result of the Congress reform. The draft priorities have already been approved by the Bureau of the Congress, and we are keen to have your input before they are submitted for discussion and adoption in plenary in October. We want the priorities also to reflect the national associations’ aspirations for European action, and we look forward to receiving your comments, proposals and possible criticisms.

Another objective of today’s Meeting is to discuss joint actions that might be conducted by the Congress and national associations, concerning in particular the impact of the world financial crisis on local and regional authorities and possible responses; ethics, transparency and the fight against corruption for good local and regional governance; as well as co-operation with the member and adjacent non-member countries of the Council of Europe.

More specifically, we are planning to discuss with you future action in priority fields for the Congress, in respect of which we would like to conclude co-operation agreements with interested associations. We believe that this will offer an opportunity of practical co-operation with those associations that might be interested, either because they are already active in the relevant areas or because they wish to develop joint action with the Congress.

We wish to hear your opinion on these matters, and we strongly hope for your active participation today. Please speak up, and do not be shy to take the floor.

Once again, welcome, and thank you.