Conference ‘Public Governance as the Foundation of European Integration’

23-24 June, Vienna

Speech by Mairi Evans, member of the Governance Committee of the Congress

[Introduction]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to speak to you today, on behalf of the president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Jean-Claude Frécon.

Let me begin by sharing with you my conviction of the added value of decentralization and local democracy for public administration. Local democracy is a fundamental condition for a well-functioning democracy. Democracy involves giving voice and choice to the people and this requires an efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable public administration at local level.

Local democracy and public administration are interdependent. Without the values of a genuine democracy no efficient, responsive and accountable public administration is possible and vice-versa. An efficient public administration is essential for local and regional governments to be able to respond to the needs of the citizens, to provide public services, to prevent corruption and to foster economic growth. Decentralisation can provide answers to many of the challenges that we are currently facing in Europe – such as the refugee crisis and the increase of extremist violence – because local and regional democracy acts at the grassroots, the level closest to the citizens and is therefore able to respond rapidly to new social developments.

But in order to do so local and regional authorities need to have the freedom, the powers and the competences to make decisions for themselves. Part of the mission of the Congress is to provide, through the European Charter of Local Self-government, a legal framework in which there is a clear definition of competences for each level of government, with the principle of subsidiarity being firmly entrenched. Local autonomy does not just mean more democracy - local authorities are also responsible for promoting and stimulating economic growth and development. Local and regional governments can create public-private partnerships for the provision of services, works and supplies.

[Main body]

Over the past decade we have seen some progress in modernising local public administrations in order to comply with good governance standards – such as transparency, accountability, effectiveness, responsibility, participation, responsiveness and human rights, and to improve the efficiency and the quality of public services. In order to contribute to public administration reform, new forms of local governance are appearing, and redefining the relationships that local and regional authorities have with national governments, civil society groups, businesses and citizens.

We are seeing a shift in local and regional authorities - from decision-making processes by one central actor in a vertical and institutionalized way - to decision-making processes in a more flexible and mixed way. This comprises both vertical relationships  with the central government and horizontally with other public authorities and the inclusion of businesses, civil society and voluntary bodies. Local authorities are no longer seen as just another tier of government; local governments are increasingly fostering dynamic partnerships with civil society and the private sector in order to improve the quality of public service delivery, enhance the social responsibilities and ensure the broad participation of citizens in decision-making.

This movement to wider forms of governance, which frequently has local or regional governments at the centre, takes many shapes, forms and degrees of intensity across the Council of Europe member states. It is important that in this shift from government to governance we do not forget to maintain the values of good governance. Without good standards of openness, responsibility, participation, responsiveness and human rights, without a healthy exchange with the public, our local and regional governments will be quite unable to meet the needs of their citizens. In new local governance structures - such as in metropolitan areas - local and regional authorities are increasingly finding that they do not take all their decisions or provide all public services on their own. Instead they are creating contracts and partnerships between the national government, other municipalities, civil society, private bodies and also with citizens in order to jointly find solutions to solve the social problems that are shared among the several tiers of government.

Cooperation between municipalities and other actors can be a useful instrument to avoid a recentralization of powers and service provision and to identify efficient solutions to social problems. There are, however, two sides to these new governance arrangements. At first glance, taking an optimistic perspective, the involvement of civil society and market interest can increase democratic decision-making, with decisions being reached in a deliberative way, through negotiation and compromises between participating actors. But others, taking a more pessimistic view, would argue that the inclusion of unelected representatives and private bodies in the decision-making process is endangering and eroding democracy in our cities and metropolitan areas.  Non-state actors and civil society do not have the same democratic accountability and legitimacy.

Therefore, in the development of new and wider forms of governance it is essential that local authorities continue to guarantee the values of good governance and take into account the consequences of these developments for the democratic health of their towns and cities.

Technology can help us here. Developments in e-democracy and e-governance are flagging up exciting new ways for citizens to participate actively in deliberation processes and to hold public authorities to account. Another development in local governance is the introduction of performance management at local level, which has been progressively expanding across Europe. Performance management challenges local authorities to demonstrate how they are improving services in terms of efficiency, productivity, quality of services and the impact of the services upon the lives of citizens. It is a tool to improve the quality of public services, to help improve decisions and to be more accountable to citizens for the delivery of better local public services.

In order to achieve efficient and a high quality of services, local and regional governments are increasingly outsourcing their services to private bodies to establish access to better expertise and resources. The benefit of public procurement - the purchase of works, goods and services from private bodies by local and regional authorities – is that it can generate business opportunities, drive economic growth and create jobs in the local community. Public procurement accounts for a large and growing share of public spending across Europe and although public procurement is a great opportunity for local governments to serve and stimulate economic growth and development in their communities I would like to point out the risk of corruption in this sphere.  Decentralisation may restrain the risk of corruption by making elected representative more accountable to the citizens they serve. However, there can be greater opportunities and fewer obstacles to prevention corruption at the local level, especially where public administrations are weak. Local authorities often have less developed independent auditing functions and lack contracting expertise.

Outsourcing of public services also has an impact on accountability. Usually, when local authorities outsource their services, they remain responsible for monitoring the contractors. However, in practice, local government does not always have the capacity or the expertise to fulfil this function effectively. Transparency is a key mechanism in combatting corruption in public procurement and enhancing integrity of the stakeholders. Therefore, the Congress recommends local and regional authorities to create transparent procurement policies and regulation in order to minimize the risk of corruption and maximize the change that the economic, social, environmental and political benefits of regional and local public procurement are realized.

Citizens do not only have a right to good public administration they also need to have the right to be involved in the decision-making process. The participation of citizens is not about improving public services, but citizens can also find a role as partners in the delivery of services. Technology can help us here. We are seeing some exciting developments in e-governance applications that can increase the participation of citizens, through providing information, consultation and deliberation in the decision-making process. These are changing the relationship between local government and their citizen and civic groups from a one-way to a two-way conversation. Unfortunately we still have some countries where this communication is still very much one-directional, a monologue rather than a conversation, with information about the local authority, with varying degrees of scope and detail, being made available via the web.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is promoting the benefits of e-governance and encouraging local and regional authorities to go beyond the information stage, by the release of public open data. The release of local open data can be essential component in enabling good governance in local democracy. Open data offers greater transparency, accountability and possibilities to empower citizens to contribute to the decision-making process. It can also be a preventive tool in the fight of corruption by providing data on governmental expenditures and performances. As I said before, local level requires an efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable public administration in order to response quick and adequate to the needs of the citizen and public administration need to adapt the values of local democracy in order to be responsiveness to their citizens.

Different forms of governance are developing to provide local democracies with strong and accountable public administration. However significant challenges, such as centralization and recentralisation, corruption and fraudulent practices, remain in some of the Council of Europe member states. The Congress wishes to counteract these risks and is working to improve local self-governance, strengthen the capacities of local authorities, ethical and transparent decision-making through regularly monitoring the implementation of the ratified articles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government by member states, the actual situations at the local and regional level and the organisation co-operation activities.

As well as its monitoring and observation activities, the Congress is also involved in co-operation activities. It organises activities in specific member states, with a view to enhancing the institutional capacities of local authorities, fostering dialogue between central, local and regional authorities, increasing the dialogue with citizens and assisting in the implementation of its standards.Our focus today is on creating a ‘virtuous circle’ of monitoring – post-monitoring – co-operation activities. Currently, we have co-operation activities in Albania, Armenia and Ukraine, where we are running a range of seminars and workshops to promote ethical governance, and strengthen the institutional and leadership capacities of local elected authorities.

Last year, we carried out a monitoring visit in Montenegro; this year we carried out a monitoring visit in Croatia and a fact finding mission in Albania. In April a delegation of the Congress observed the local and provincial elections in Serbia. Kosovo has also expressed an interest in cooperating with the Congress, notably in the field of election observation and awareness-raising of the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

We see these activities as a contribution to helping the Western Balkans implement the European standards of local democracy, which both the European Union and the Council of Europe share. We are pleased to see that most national governments are taking into account and following our recommendations.

[Conclusion]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The new developments in local governance also bring their own challenges.  The increasing involvement of unelected private actors and civil society in the decision-making process raises important issues of accountability.  Some local authorities question whether these developments are beneficial for effective decentralized democracy and accountability or whether they constitute a threat to it. Many inter-municipal co-operation programmes and other forms of co-operation between local government and other actors in delivering services increasingly involve non-elected members, who are not accountable to citizens. This can increase the risk of corruption and a lack of transparency. Local elected representatives need to seize the opportunities and challenges that these developments represent for local governance, while ensuring the democratic base of their towns and cities is not eroded. The Congress is convinced that these changes in local governance have great potential to improve local and regional government.  If implemented with due respect for the principles and conditions of the European Charter of Local Self-Governments, they will serve to strengthen local and regional democracy.

By using a variety of new and innovative forms of governance and increasing the involvement of citizens, the local and regional level can contribute positively to public administration reform. The new movements in the field of governance are bringing many opportunities for local and regional governments to offer better public services and more tailored and responsive policies to the developments in our society. That, you will agree, is what we should all be aiming for.