CONFERENCE OF THE REGIONAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP (CORLEAP)

Tbilisi (Georgia) 29 September 2014

Speech by Nataliya Romanova ((Ukraine, ILDG), President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of the Council of Europe

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank President Lebrun for inviting the Congress to take the floor in this Annual Assembly and contribute to the reflexion on the current and future challenges of the Eastern Partnership.

Many CORLEAP members are also members of the Congress. This is a strength! It creates synergies and a natural link among them.

To protect the prerogatives conferred to local and regional authorities is the core mission of the Congress: thanks to the principles laid down in the European Charter of Local Self-Government of the Council of Europe we do support them vis-à-vis national governments and advise them on the possible improvement of their internal functioning.

Over the last two years the Congress paid special attention to developments in  several Eastern Partnership countries. We carried out the monitoring and adopted recommendations on local and regional democracy in: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Over the same period, the Congress has also observed local elections in many of these countries.

We were very pleased to share the results of our monitoring exercises with the CoR: I welcome the good cooperation experienced in Brussels, through the hearings jointly organised by the Committee of the Regions with the Congress on “Local and Regional Democracy in Ukraine”, “Fiscal Decentralisation in the Eastern Partnership”; “Devolution and Reforms in the EaP Countries” and “Local and Regional Democracy in Armenia”.

Allow me now to touch upon some specific points deriving from our monitoring analysis that could inspire us for the future challenges we are discussing here today:

-Good governance and public administration reform is a main feature to take care of: a more dynamic approach is needed with regard to transparency and ethics at all levels of governance, including the local and regional level. We must not forget that Ethical governance is an integral part of good governance and helps to build citizens’ trust in public authorities.

-Territorial budgetary autonomy: local authorities, may I quote the European Charter of Local Self-Government, “shall be entitled to adequate financial resources of their own, of which they may dispose freely”.

-Citizen participation: in particular the enhanced involvement of the young generations in democracy and politics cannot be postponed. In this respect, an instrument, we can count on is the European Charter on youth participation at local and regional level. 

-Territorial co-operation: encouraging and promoting inter-municipal and inter-regional co-operation, together with the overall cross-border co-operation: in the present global conditions, territorial governments can respond to economic, environmental, technological, cultural, and social challenges by directly cooperating between them beyond the borders.

But the purpose is that the monitoring analysis of local and regional democracy in the member states does not remain “static”. The Congress wishes to take advantage of the major difficulties detected and meet the challenges; with a view to making local and regional democracy concretely and efficiently advance.

This is why we decided to launch ground activities in: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, funded by our member States and the European Union, in the framework of the Council of Europe Action plans.

As for the Armenian project “Support for the consolidation of local democracy in Armenia” which is included in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2012-2014, the Congress has proposed a line of Action on strengthening of the leadership capacities of local elected representatives to be implemented via workshops and seminars.

Within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Azerbaijan 2014-2016, the Congress proposed to contribute to enhance local democracy in compliance with its Recommendation 326(2012). The Congress will support the reinforcement of the leadership capacities of local elected representatives and promote dialogue between politicians.

In Georgia, within the Council of Europe Action Plan, local governance has been set as one of the priority areas: there is a project that includes support to the reform to ensure consultation of local authorities and the strengthening of the capacity of local elected representatives and citizen participation.

In the Republic of Moldova, the Council of Europe Action Plan includes an action line on strengthening local democracy and governance. It covers the strengthening of local political governance, the increase of local elected representatives’ capacities and the promotion of a dialogue with central and local authorities.

As for Ukraine, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted in April 2014 the “Cooperation with Ukraine – Immediate Measures Package” and the Congress will organise a series of seminars for young local leaders with the objective of raising awareness of the young community leaders of local and regional democracy principles.

Finally on the base of the “Statement of intent” between the Council of Europe and the European Commission, activities will be implemented in the period 2015-2020 by the Congress and the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform of the Council of Europe in the priority co-operation area of strengthening institutional frameworks for local governance.

The projects try to combine the EaP countries’ needs with the Congress mission of supporting the role of local and regional authorities vis-à-vis national governments and European institutions in seeking greater competences, decision-making and financial autonomy for the local and regional level through decentralisation; of promoting good local governance, based on leadership and ethical behaviour.

I would finally like to express the support of the Congress to the draft Recommendations to be addressed to the Heads of State and Government for the Riga EaP Summit:

-The Congress, together with the CoR has been supportive to the reform process of local democracy and regionalisation in the EaP countries.

-The implementation of the rule of law, respect for human rights and fundamental values (including transparency, democracy, and good governance) are the core values of the Council of Europe and by consequence of the Congress.

-Cross- border cooperation is a major preoccupation of the Congress, which pays particular attention to fostering co-operation between regions across the continent. The Chamber of Regions acts in particular to promote co-operation between regional authorities, the sharing of experience and any initiatives to encourage interregional co-operation. I am convinced that inter-territorial co-operation can provide opportunities for boosting territorial development, achieving greater territorial cohesion and helping to reduce regional disparities.

-Capacity building and institutional efficiency are one of our major concerns, too. I believe that we should first of all develop competences and management skills of local and regional authorities - notably via an exchange of experiences and good practices - and to engage them in specific co-operation projects, using European and international financial support for their implementation.

For our part, we in the Congress, look forward to strengthening our co-operation and building synergies with CORLEAP on issues of common concern. CORLEAP provides an excellent platform for co-operation and I think we can make it.

Thank you for attention.