98^th Annual Conference of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI)

Trim, 8-9 September 2011

The Principle of Subsidiarity: a European Perspective

Speech by President Keith Whitmore, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to address this Annual Conference of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland. As a national association, AMAI is a close partner of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, and not only in matters of forming the Irish national delegation to the Congress. Being a political assembly of local and regional elected representatives from 47 member states of the Council of Europe, the Congress relies heavily in its work on national associations such as AMAI. We see them as our main interlocutor in the national setting, as an entity representing and defending the interests of local authorities vis-à-vis national governments, and a link between our proposals for action and their implementation at the grassroots level.

National associations are also our principal “early-warning system” in European countries, alerting the Congress to potential problems as we monitor the situation of local and regional democracy across the continent. They – you – accompany our monitoring activities, and contribute to setting the priorities of the Congress through regular consultations and general meetings of national associations, which the Congress convenes once every two years. This partnership is our bridge to the grassroots, which is why I am particularly pleased to be here today, as AMAI marks its 98^th year running.

The Council of Europe and its Congress cannot boast such a mature age. However, over more than 60 years of the existence of the Council of Europe, and more than 50 for the Congress, we have succeeded in creating a system of governance in Europe which is unique in the world, and which continues to evolve today. A landmark feature of European democracy is its strong local and regional dimension rooted in the principle of subsidiarity, which is the theme of our discussion this afternoon. As President of the Congress, I am proud to say that we are often referred to as the guardian of the principle of subsidiarity and the watchdog of local and regional democracy in Europe, both notions going hand in hand, so it is very appropriate for me to speak about this tenet underlying territorial self-government on our continent.

In my presentation, I would like to remind you of the history of this principle and speak about the current situation of its application as well as future prospects.

From the Charter of Municipal Liberties to the Charter of Local Self-Government

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The local and regional dimension of European democracy was born out of the conviction that the excessive concentration of power in the national centres must be counterbalanced by stronger development of the power base at the grassroots, at local and regional level. National governments themselves recognised that democracy must necessarily be rooted in the strong democratic mechanisms in local communities, which are the foundation of any democratic system and a prerequisite for national democratic stability.

The needs of the post-war reconstruction of local communities, which required autonomy in decision-making, brought into prominence the movement of mayors and led to the founding, in 1950, of the Council of European Municipalities. One of its first acts was the Charter of Municipal Liberties, adopted in 1953. That same year, Mayor of Bordeaux Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who later would become Prime Minister of France, launched an initiative to create a European reference point for local powers, a representative body that should be the voice of local authorities as partners of both national governments and parliaments in the European construction. In 1957, the European Conference of Local Authorities was born, which was transformed decades later, in 1994, into the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

The core mission of the Congress is to monitor the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government – the first international binding treaty for local democracy, adopted in 1985 to give local governance a legal basis. For the first time in history, the Charter laid down the core principles of local governance and common standards for protecting and developing the rights of local communities and their authorities. It required that the principle of local self-government be embedded in domestic law or in the Constitution in order to guarantee its effective implementation. This text, which affirms the role of communities as the first level for the exercise of democracy, has become the benchmark international treaty in this area.

Its entry into force in 1988, and its ratification by 45 European countries to date, sped up the momentum of the devolution of power on our continent, releasing the potential of communities and empowering them to take up the many challenges facing our society. The Local Self-Government Charter ushered in a new stage of democratic development on our continent, leading to a democracy which is more citizen-oriented, more participatory and therefore more effective. This is also evident from the additional protocol to the Charter, opened for signature in November 2009, which reaffirms the right of citizens to participate in the affairs of a local authority.

The Charter is also the first treaty to establish the principle that public responsibilities should be exercised by those authorities who are closest to the citizens, and that allocation of responsibility to another authority should be commensurate with the task and take into account the requirements of efficiency and economy. This principle, known as the principle of subsidiarity, implies the transfer of competences to local communities, thus allowing for the decentralisation of power towards the grassroots level. The Charter also requires that any transfer of competences must be accompanied by matching financial resources to enable local authorities to perform the task.

With the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the rights of local communities, first set out in the Charter of Municipal Liberties, have thus been codified into law. The principle of subsidiarity has also been recognised by the European Union and included into the Lisbon Treaty to govern the division of competences between European, national and local/regional levels.

Principle of subsidiarity: Monitoring local and regional democracy in Europe

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Congress of the Council of Europe is tasked with monitoring the Charter’s implementation and thus the development of local and regional democracy in Europe, and remains today the only European body with the legal mandate to do so. It is by this virtue that we carry out country-by-country monitoring exercises to assess situations at local and regional level, fact-finding missions to look into cases of potential violations of the Charter, and observation of local and regional elections to see the Charter’s practical application to the electoral process.

Having been monitoring the situation of local and regional democracy in Europe since 1995, the Congress has accumulated substantial experience which allows us, on the one hand, to take into account the diversity of methods and practices in implementing the Charter and, on the other hand, to recommend optimal solutions and good practices suitable to the specific national settings – in terms of, for instance, necessary legislation and improvements to the legal framework, local financing schemes or ways to increase citizen participation.

To give you some examples, some national laws establish the mandatory minimum for local finance transfers as a percentage from the central budget, whereas others give more freedom to municipal authorities in raising local taxes; some local councils have an obligation to hold regular meetings with the residents of their communities (“town meetings”), whereas others prefer setting up representative consultative councils of local residents, or “neighbourhood councils”, or using new technologies for direct consultations in the electronic format.

However, there are also drawbacks to this diversity.  The reservations made by member states while ratifying the European Charter of Local Self-Government represent an obstacle to the harmonious application of the Charter’s principles, and thus to creating a common legal space, common legal standards at the national level. For this reason, the Congress will now be analysing the grounds for such reservations in the first place, and to work on changing the circumstances that were used as justification. This is one of the priority issues that the Congress will be addressing in the next years.

Partly as a result of this situation, our monitoring experience shows that local self-government in many member states is still fragile, characterised by a rather weak legislative framework and rather arbitrary administrative practices. If we are to draw lessons from this experience, I would emphasise four major points.

First, there must be a clear delimitation of competences for each level of government set in law, for local and regional authorities to have fixed responsibilities and tasks. Second, adequate local and regional financing must be ensured to match these responsibilities, as the insufficiency of funds for territorial authorities is a major shortcoming across Europe. Third, we need practical measures to guarantee genuine independence of local and regional authorities and non-interference in their decision-making from higher levels. This point is underpinned by the first two, and goes to the heart of the problem: you cannot create a community of equal partners in a framework of multilevel governance when some depend on others for competences, money and decision-making authority.

Finally, we must provide a framework for greater citizen participation and innovation at local and regional level, which is also one of the main future prospects for local democracy. In this regard, I should point out an initiative of the Congress, the European Local Democracy Week, an annual event marked across Europe in October since 2007. The European Local Democracy Week is proving to be an excellent tool for involving citizens and having them enter into dialogue with their local authorities.

Towards a system of multi-level governance

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let us now look at the future prospects of local and regional self-government.

It is clear that historically, power was concentrated at the top and delegated top-down, which is why the European Charter of Local Self-Government speaks about the transfer of competences and responsibilities to the level closest to the citizen, which represents the process of decentralisation, or devolution of power. This transfer and decentralisation is taking place within a traditional, hierarchical model of governance based on subordination of lower levels to the higher ones – local, regional, national, and sublevels in between.

However, there is a growing realisation today of the need for a new model, to be able to respond more effectively, on the one hand, to the governance challenges that are becoming increasingly more complex and, on the other hand, to the crisis of European democracy. This crisis, as described in last year’s report of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, is characterised by increasing distance between citizens on the one hand and democratic institutions and procedures on the other. As a result, we are witnessing today institutional deficits of democracy, such as the lack of effective rights of citizen participation, the weakness of parliaments vis-à-vis the executive, and governmental work that is geared to short-term electoral success and lacks long-term vision.

At the same time, we are also witnessing a surge in people’s activism outside the established institutions of governance – through civil society, voluntary activities and social networks, for example. The traditional model of representative democracy is being increasingly challenged by the elements of direct democracy, calling for direct and continuous participation of citizens in governance, not limited only to elections. New information and communication technologies offer vast opportunities for such participation in the framework of so-called e-democracy.

The local level is an excellent ground for innovation in this respect, and the Congress has already made proposals to local authorities for using e-tools (including the delivery of e-services) and organising citizen consultations on urban projects. Another innovative idea is participatory budgeting, whereby the initiatives of citizens and civil society – many of which may have their own external funding – are included into local budgets according to municipal priorities. This kills two birds in one stone: strengthens local budgets through outside supplements, and responds to the wishes of the people as to in what areas action should be taken. Participatory budgeting is gaining ground today in particular in Germany, Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom.

To sum up, we are speaking today about the need to replace the concept of top-down transfer of competences and responsibilities with their bottom-up delegation, thus returning the power to its legitimate owner, the people, and their local communities. A new concept reflecting this vision is that of a system of multi-level governance, a new model proposed a few years ago.

This model will replace the existing system of vertical hierarchical subordination of powers with their horizontal equal partnership, the transfer and delegation of competences with the sharing of responsibilities, and the levels of government with domains of governance – local, regional, national, European, and sublevels in between – based on the delimitation of clearly identified competences. This delimitation, in turn, must be based on the criteria of effectiveness and efficiency of action when assigning responsibility to a particular domain of governance.

These issues are already being taken into account in European Union decisions and public debates in Europe, in relations for instance to energy efficiency, integration of Roma populations or the treatment of migrants. The Committee of the Regions of the European Union is currently pushing for elaborating a European Charter of Multilevel Governance, and the Congress is supporting this initiative.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion, I would like to reaffirm once again our conviction that the way forward is through further decentralisation of power and through greater participation of citizens in democratic processes and the decision-making at grassroots, a way towards a democratic model which is both representative AND direct, a way towards “proximity governance”.

Increased public participation and direct involvement in local governance will give our citizens a sense of empowerment, and will help to restore confidence and bridge the gap of the democratic deficit. At the same time, increased participation of citizens will make it possible to tap into their potential for innovation. It will also serve to ensure greater transparency and accountability of elected representatives, thus filling in many of institutional deficits of democracy.

Another future prospect for the development of grassroots democracy is involving local and regional authorities in the implementation of human rights in their communities. For the greater part of history of human rights, their delivery has been seen as a matter for national authorities. And yet, the realisation of human rights takes place in the concrete environment of our communities and is a prerequisite of democracy and good governance as much at local and regional level as it is at the national. By delivering social services and services of general interest, local and regional authorities are already implementing on a daily basis much of human rights principles and standards set out in international treaties. We need to raise awareness of their role, and to promote conditions for the full exercise of human rights in our communities.

This is the way to the future of European local democracy, resting on a solid basis of the subsidiarity principle.

Thank you.