110^th Plenary Session of the Venice Commission, Friday, 10 March 2017 (9:00-18:00)

Statement by Congress President Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM

Dear President and

members of the Venice Commission,

Ambassadors, Excellencies,

dear ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased and honoured about the opportunity to address this distinguished expert forum here in Venice and to talk about the latest developments in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

You may know - I was elected President of the Congress at the 31^st Session in October last year. I am the first woman in this function which gives reason to be also a little proud of the Congress – particularly in the context of what we have celebrated this week, on 8th March.

In my home country, in Austria, I am Vice-President of the State Parliament of Salzburg. I am member of Congress since 2009 and have been able, over the last years, to gain practical experiences in many activities at the local and regional level. I consider these practical experiences as the solid foundation of my mandate as a President in the next two years.

I made my very first election observation mission to Azerbaijan and was, further on, Head of several delegations who observed local elections in Ukraine. The last one, the largest Congress’ mission ever, was organised – together with the colleagues from the Parliamentary Assembly – in October 2015. I participated also in several missions to monitor the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government – in Sweden, France and Greece, to mention only the most recent ones.

Let me now highlight some current activities of the Congress and ways to co-operate with the Venice Commission and other strategic partners.

Co-operation has been since long a leading principle of the work in the Congress. With regard to the European Union, we are in the process of developing targeted strategies on anti-corruption and de-radicalisation policies for cities and regions. A conference on the role of local and regional authorities in preventing corruption and promoting good governance was organised last week in Brussels, in co-operation with the Committee of the Regions. Over the next months, we will revise the European Code of Conduct for the integrity of local and regional politicians. This is part of a broader action plan to address issues such as transparency, nepotism and conflicts of interests at the grassroots’ level.

The new Congress’ Checklist for compliance with international standards and best practices preventing misuse of administrative resources during elections was discussed in yesterday’s meeting of the Council for Democratic Elections.  This is a very concrete example of co-operation with the Venice Commission. The Opinion provided by your Commission will serve as a source of inspiration for the further consolidation of our Checklist which is on the agenda of the next Congress’ Plenary Session, where Richard BARRETT, a member of your Commission, will take the floor in order to contextualise the work already done to prevent administrative resources during elections. This malpractice has made its way into the established European political culture and is particularly relevant in our municipalities – because of the specific and close link between incumbents, candidates, public employees and voters. 

Co-operation with other strategic partners, notably the Parliamentary Assembly, is also high on the agenda of the Congress with regard to anti-radicalisation programmes and our policies on migration challenges at the local level. We are pleased that the Congress President has been invited to address the June Session of the Parliamentary Assembly to discuss about the “management of the migration and refugees flows”. We welcome very much this opportunity to explain the position of local and regional authorities in this respect.  In autumn, the Congress is going to organise the third Summit of Mayors for the “Alliance of European cities against violent extremism”. This event will take place in Barcelona, in co-operation with EFUS, the European Forum for Urban Security.

This leads me to what we all consider as the raison d'être of the Council of Europe - democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The full title of your Commission - "European Commission for Democracy through Law" – describes very well what we in the Congress are embracing, at the local and regional level of government. We want to achieve democratic stability through the implementation of European standards at grassroots' level. Our core instrument in this respect is the European Charter of Local Self-Government with its mechanism, the Congress’ monitoring.

Since the last plenary meeting of the Venice Commission in December 2016, the Congress has carried out monitoring missions to Switzerland, Serbia and we are about to start our monitoring of Italy next week. Furthermore, a new Report on the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in the 47 member States of the Council of Europe will be presented during the next Congress’ Plenary in two weeks’ time. It aims at providing an overview on the implementation of the Charter based on monitoring recommendations. It is interesting to note that the conclusions of this analysis echo the recurring issues which the Congress highlighted in another Report which covers the recommendations over a period from 2010 to 2016. It stresses, among other issues, the lack of direct applicability of the European Charter on Local Self-Government and the Congress recommends that national authorities ensure direct applicability of this treaty ratified by the 47 member States.

As regards monitoring activities, smaller countries will be in the focus of the Monitoring Committee this year and I trust that Leen VERBEEK, the President of this Committee, will update you on the specific application of the Charter in these countries at one of your next meetings.

Moreover, there has been the second part of the Congress’ Fact-finding Mission to Turkey on 19 and 20 December. I won’t go into the details of this Fact-finding at this stage because my colleague Leen will do so later this morning, under item 14. I only want to mention the Congress’ Report - which is due to be debated and adopted 29 March – and may also give rise to further concrete co-operation with the Venice Commission.

Let me conclude by some remarks on new Congress’ activities which can be seen as complementary action to efforts already undertaken by the Venice Commission and other Council of Europe bodies – I am talking about our new programme of Congress South-Med Partnership. This initiative for southern Mediterranean countries is to meet the objectives of the neighbourhood policy of the Council of Europe, at the local and regional level. The aim is to design a special framework for this Partnership for more regular exchanges of best practices and experiences with the countries concerned. As a consequence of preparatory visits carried out by the Congress last autumn, delegations from Morocco and Tunisia will come to Strasbourg to attend the Congress’ Plenary Session and hold meetings to discuss next steps. A possible first occasion to implement parts of the co-operation programme could be the local elections which – further to the adoption of legal provisions – should be held in October in Tunisia. The Congress expressed already its readiness, in principle, to observe these elections and is interested to carry out preparations in close co-operation with our partners, notably the Council for Democratic Elections.

Thank you very much for your attention!