768^th meeting – 10 October 2001

Item 6.2 

Regional economic partnership - a factor for social cohesion
Recommendation 69 (1999) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (REC_69(1999) of CLRAE) 

Decision 

The Deputies adopted the following reply to Recommendation 69 (1999) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe on the Regional economic partnership - a factor for social cohesion: 

“The Committee of Ministers has examined Recommendation 69 of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe on regional economic partnership - a factor for social cohesion. 

The Committee of Ministers wishes to remind the Congress that in January 2000 it gave the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) ad hoc terms of reference instructing it '[t]o complete the groundwork for the elaboration of a legal instrument on regional self-government, on the basis of the principles, areas and elements on which the CDLR [had] reached a preliminary agreement and, in particular: 

- to draw up model forms of regional self-government which [might] be included in a legal instrument as guidelines or as a basis of more precise standards; 

- to identify those principles which [were] common to all such models and which [might] constitute the core principles of a legal instrument designed to apply to all states wishing to establish or reform a democratic regional tier of government; 

- to draft a text which could be the core of a legal instrument, presenting these principles and models and to report back to the Committee of Ministers.' 

The CDLR has until 31 December 2001 to discharge its terms of reference and complete its work, which may lead to a legal instrument in the form of a convention, or in some different form, depending on the conclusions of the CDLR's work and future decisions of the Committee of Ministers. 

The Committee of Ministers would also point out that when it examined Congress Recommendation 83 (2000) on evaluation of regionalisation in central Europe, especially in Poland, it invited the CDLR “to take it into account when defining its future programme of activities” adding that the CDLR was responsible for considering “ member states' experience of recent administrative and territorial reforms and [preparing] a report designed to analyse the difficulties and obstacles encountered and to identify means of dealing with them effectively."

The CDLR included an activity to this effect in its 2001 programme.  This activity will take account of the work under way on the institutional dialogue between the state, the regions, local authorities and their associations, which concerns related issues.  

Lastly, the Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Congress that the theme of the 13^th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local Government, to be held in Helsinki in June 2002, will be 'Regional self-government: different methods of implementation'.  

Furthermore, the Committee of Ministers wishes to assure the Congress that the activities designed to promote transfrontier co-operation in Europe - in particular in central and eastern Europe, including the Stability Pact countries - are designed to increase stability and security in the region by means of concrete partnerships between local and regional authorities based on projects of common interest.  These activities are designed to facilitate ratification of the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities and the establishment of co-operation bodies such as the 'Euroregions' and to encourage local and regional authorities to co-operate with authorities on the other side of a shared border so as to foster neighbourly relations and help overcome shared problems or meet common challenges. 

The help which the Council of Europe provides to local authorities in this context aims for example at the establishment of a Euroregion in the area of the Ohrid/Prespa lakes between Greece, Albania and 'the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia', the identification of obstacles to - and opportunities for - transfrontier co-operation between the Stability Pact countries, and continued co-operation between frontier local authorities after the enlargement of the European Union. 

With regard to the establishment of networks for co-operation and partnership between European regions, the Committee of Ministers considers that such initiatives fall primarily within the remit of the Congress.”