Speech by Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, President of the Congress Chamber of Regions
Building Inclusive Societies
Brussels, 23 June 2015
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Ladies and gentleman,
It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today, and I would like to thank our host, the Committee of the Regions, for inviting the Congress to this event.
The theme of this conference is important to me, both in my capacity as the President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and in my national role as Vice President of the Regional Parliament of Salzburg in Austria.
I would like to begin by reaffirming the strong commitment of the Congress to the ideal of building an inclusive society – a society where we can live together in all our diversity, a society where differences and human rights are respected as the pillars of a participative and vibrant democracy.
The Congress, which represents more than 200,000 territorial communities in Europe, has specific proposals to make with respect to the elaboration of a strategy for building inclusive societies, and a key role to play in putting it into practice.
The question of the integration of migrants, foreign residents and historic minorities in our local and regional communities remains high on the Congress agenda. It has been one of our key priorities for many years. Our basic premise is that a society which is fragmented by economic inequalities, social injustice and by intercultural and interfaith conflict, represents a major obstacle to building participatory democracy.
Local and regional authorities have a major role to play in building bridges to enable cohesive communities to develop. Inclusion mechanisms can be put in place more easily at the local level. You only have to note, for example, that the right to vote for foreigners at the local level is easier to defend than the right to vote at the national level.
The Congress is developing in this field its action based on four pillars: These are
- Intercultural and interreligious dialogue;
- Migrants in the local economy;
- Social cohesion; and
- Citizen participation.
So let us first look at the pillar of Intercultural and interreligious dialogue. The recent terrorist attacks in Europe, here in Brussels, in Paris and other cities, have reminded us of the destructive force of the refusal to understand and accept others. They showed us how important it is to renew intercultural and inter religious dialogue.
Already in 2006 the Congress had discussed the role of local and regional authorities in developing interreligious dialogue and exchanging good practices. Local communities in Europe are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious. The true challenge is to find ways of using this diversity for the benefit of the entire community.
At the Congress, we subscribe to the "diversity advantage" concept which affirms our conviction that the cultural and religious communities and social groups in our societies are a source of enrichment and not an obstruction to be overcome.
The Congress has addressed this issue in various ways:
· We adopted a number of important resolutions.
· We organised international workshops and major international conferences on the participation of foreign residents in urban life and on local integration policies.
· We published a book called “Gods in the City" in 2008. I invite you all to read it. It is a contribution to the democratic debate on intercultural and interfaith dialogue and to action by the authorities in the context of religious pluralism.
· In our March session this year we had a debate on Jewish cemeteries in Europe and their preservation as part of our common European cultural heritage. In this matter, local authorities are the main actors because they manage such public spaces.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The second pillar is about migrants. Building inclusive societies cannot be achieved without improving the access and the integration of non-nationals and minorities in the local economy.
Today there are 24 million non-nationals living in the member States of the Council of Europe. Many of them are from ethnic minorities.
Migrants are often seen as a problem, whereas they contribute to the local economy. Businesses owned by migrants and ethnic minorities have a significant impact on economic growth in Europe. Migrants’ access to the labour market or to creating their own business is of utmost importance for successful integration processes.
The challenge here is to be able to create an environment that actively encourages the development of migrant entrepreneurship and supports their inclusion into local economies.
For this reason we are working with other sectors of the Council of Europe, and in our March session this year we awarded the ‘Diversity advantage challenge' prize to the most interesting and convincing real-life story of the successful involvement of people of different backgrounds in the design of innovative projects and initiatives in our cities.
The winner was a project from Barcelona on fostering intercultural relations around local businesses, from migrant backgrounds.
The winner project's leader said in his speech - and I quote - “When people get together to do things together, they meet each other and then lot of myths fall". Indeed. All one needs to do is to go out there and do it.
Dear Colleagues, I prefer to hear this kind of declaration rather than the dissemination of fear and anger against migrants.
As for our third pillar, social cohesion, this is a key concept for building inclusive societies and participatory democracies. It implies facilitating access to housing for minorities and migrant, promoting diversity and fighting against prejudices and stereotypes.
Social cohesion frequently suffers from the reluctance and negative representations of the local population, resulting from prejudice and misconceptions. In our resolution on “Promoting diversity through intercultural education and communication strategies” last year we noted that whereas in the past, we sought to achieve social cohesion on the basis of homogeneity, today we find ourselves in an intercultural society where cohesion must be found in diversity. We need to live together, and not side by side.
Action to fight prejudice against foreigners has to be based on all forms of communication, including political speeches by elected representatives and the image of migrants and foreign residents in our media.
Local authorities have a crucial role to play in this respect, by working to change negative perceptions and explain diversity advantages to local residents through intercultural education and effective communication strategies.
Now we come to the fourth and last pillar – citizen participation. In the Congress we believe that, for better involvement of foreign residents within communities, we need to ensure their political participation. This can take the form of voting, consultations through referendums and citizen initiatives. Granting the right to vote in local elections remains a national competence in most countries. However, in practice, more than 20 European countries today give this right to non-EU residents (with or without the right to be elected).
The right to vote and to stand as a candidate in local elections is a major step towards access to decision-making and power-sharing, a step toward full political participation. It both represents a measure against exclusion of foreigners from democratic process and turns foreign residents into voters, which makes politicians more receptive and sensitive to their needs.
The Congress has been addressing these issues as a priority for many years. In 2002, we have invited local and regional authorizes and member states of the Council of Europe to set up councils of foreign residents.
It is in the same spirit that we have raised the question of voting age in the Congress. People can feel excluded from the political process not just because of their origins, but also because of their age.
The question of lowering the age for voting in local elections is part of our policy to integrate young people into political and public life, not through simple consultation on issues that concern them, but by creating the structures that will empower them and allow them to think and act on all social and political issues that they will need to confront as adults.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the challenge of better inclusion is the most serious issue that we are facing today. Today, we have a glaring discrepancy between public opinion towards migration and ethnic minorities and our social and economic realities. We have to think differently about migrants, ant to think differently about integration, to recognise differences and to emphasise similarities.
We have to rediscover and reinforce common values that exist between the different communities. How can we challenge extremism that seems to be on the rise today, if our citizens are afraid of migrants, non-nationals and ethnic minorities?
Dear Colleagues,
To conclude I believe that our main challenge to build an inclusive society is based on the clear affirmation of one value, which is unfortunately missing in many activities: I am referring to SOLIDARITY. We are facing a crisis – a multi-faceted crisis and we are losing our value of solidarity between European regions, between citizens, between nations. We will not build inclusive societies on self-interest. If we, the Congress, have one message to deliver to this conference, it is this: Nothing is possible without solidarity.
Thank you.