26th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 25-27 March 2014)

Communication by Herwig van Staa, President of the Congress

Dear members of the Congress,

Dear observers and guests of the session,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear friends,

This 26th Session of the Congress is taking place in an atmosphere of grave concern.

Of course, we have, on the one hand, great accomplishments in the work of the Congress as we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of its establishment. We will have a special ceremony during the session to mark this event together with our European partners, and we have an impressive record of achievements of which to be proud on this occasion.

Our monitoring of local and regional democracy has been yielding positive results, helping us to build experience, to identify recurrent problems in member states and, on this basis, to engage in political dialogue with national authorities. Today, we are taking further steps in developing co-operation activities in the countries concerned, both through bilateral projects and within Council of Europe Action Plans, and we have already engaged, or are in the process of engaging, with eight member states.

Our monitoring is proceeding at an unprecedented pace and with substantial improvement in quality, on the basis of a professional preparation of missions. During our previous session in October, we debated the situation in five member states and this week, we have on our agenda monitoring reports for four more countries and post-monitoring dialogue with another member state. I am also pleased that government ministers from several of these countries will be here to hold an exchange of views with our members.

This work, ladies and gentlemen, gives credibility to the Congress and highlights its role as a pan-European assembly of local and regional elected representatives. It also gives prominence to the role of local and regional democracy as a crucial element of any democratic system, indeed its foundation, which has been widely recognised by all member states.

We have also pressed ahead with our thematic work in a growing number of areas. The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion, launched by the Congress last year, has now more than 120 participating local and regional entities, and the Congress Pact of Towns and Regions to stop sexual violence against children has been signed by 31 towns, regions and civil society organisations. As part of our thematic work, we have also been addressing today’s challenges to local and regional democracy, from the economic crisis and cultural diversity to local integration, education for democratic citizenship and engagement of young people.

This year, the Congress Bureau decided to hold both sessions under the theme of empowering young people as a shared responsibility of cities and regions. Two thematic debates and a round table on youth issues, as well as discussion of a report on empowering young Roma, are on the agenda for this session. We will also be inviting young people from member states to participate in our October session as part of their national delegations to the Congress.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 20 years of the Congress mean in reality more than six decades of the process that was launched with the creation in 1952, by decision of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, of a Committee on the local and regional dimension. The work of this Committee led to the establishment in 1957 of a European Conference of Local Authorities, when the Committee of Ministers decided to give a voice to elected representatives at the grassroots, and to hear our local and regional communities through their representative body. 

It was that assembly – which evolved into the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe – that initiated the European Charter of Local Self-Government, now the key international treaty for local democracy and the basis of our work. It is only in 1993 that the Vienna Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe decided to set up the Congress in its current form, with the first session of the Congress held on 31 May 1994. So, from this viewpoint, the Congress is historically a child in the institutional family of the Council of Europe, created to pursue the Charter’s implementation and the advance of local and regional democracy, which has been steadfast over the past sixty years.

However, the accomplishments of these six decades are being marred today by a growing loss of confidence among our citizens in the institutions of governance. The Council of Europe has been raising alarm about an impending crisis of democracy caused by disconnect between politicians and citizens, a lack of access to decision making, a lack of participation, spreading corruption and other signs of a malfunctioning system.

Over the past years, we have been witnessing people’s response to this crisis – a response outside the established institutions and instruments of governance, a popular expression of discontent. We saw it in protest movements in Athens and Madrid, in the Gezi Park and Taksim Square in Istanbul, in the streets of Sarajevo and in Maidan Square in Kiev. At the European gates, these urban mobilisations were echoed in Tunis and Cairo’s Tahrir, and across the southern Mediterranean, bringing about tremendous changes that concern all of us most directly.

Today, it is cities and regions that act as a crucible of popular expression and a catalyst for change, and local and regional authorities cannot remain on the sidelines of these rapid changes. We need to be an integral part of this process and I am pleased that the Chamber of Local Authorities will hold a debate during this session on the role of digital media in urban political mobilisation, with guest speakers from Turkey and Ukraine.

The crisis of people’s confidence also highlights the need for a new system of multi-level governance, to be able to respond better to citizens’ concerns. The discussions are currently within the EU Committee of the Regions on drafting a European Charter of Multi-level Governance; it is my personal conviction that such a Charter should also involve the Council of Europe and its Congress.

Of course, multi-level governance is an important element for achieving the goals of the Europe 20/20 Strategy; however, it is not just a matter of concern for the European Union. Multi-level governance is also crucial for making cross-border co-operation in Europe more effective, for implementing macro-regional strategies and promoting interaction between European Groupings of Territorial Co-operation, which can now belong to both EU and non-EU member states.  Cultural, economic and social competences on each side of the border may belong to different levels of governance, and the system of multi-level governance allows for the necessary coordination between them. We can already see it from the successful example of co-operation in the Danube basin.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to stop for a moment and speak about the situation in Ukraine, which raises the greatest concern in Europe today. The uprising and the establishment of a new government by the Ukrainian Parliament have set off momentous transformations in this country. Two weeks ago, I made a statement stressing that the holding of unilateral referendum in Crimea was not in conformity with international law and that it was as a travesty of democratic process. The subsequent annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation is an affront to the international community and cannot be accepted.

Today, we must express our solidarity with the people and authorities of Ukraine in the face of the crisis. We are committed to continue a search for peaceful solutions, working in sync with the rest of the Council of Europe. This afternoon, we will hold an urgent debate and will adopt a declaration on the situation in Ukraine. I encourage all of you to take an active stand in this debate. This session is the moment!

Thank you.