687th meeting – 16 November 1999
Item 12.2
MONITORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER
OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
Recommendation 20 (1996)
(CM/Del/Dec(96)574/ 9.1, (99)685/12.1; CM(97)6,
GR-E(97)17 rev.)
Decision
The Deputies adopted the following reply to CLRAE Recommendation 20 (1996) on "Monitoring the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government":
"The Committee of Ministers has carefully considered CLRAE Recommendation 20 (1996) on "Monitoring the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government" and shares the concerns expressed by the CLRAE.
In order to improve and, where appropriate, extend the application of the principles enshrined in Article 8 of the Charter, the Committee of Ministers entrusted the Steering Committee for Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) with a study of the questions related to the supervision of local authorities' action.
The final result of the work carried out by the CDLR was the elaboration and adoption of Recommendation No. R (98) 12 on "Supervision of local authorities' action". The latter expressly refers to Recommendation 20 (1996) of the CLRAE and comprises a comprehensive set of "guidelines on the improvement of the systems of supervision of local authorities' action" matching the concerns expressed by the CLRAE in the above-mentioned Recommendation.
The Committee of Ministers also recalls that the specific issue of local elected representatives' liability, which is connected to the previous one, has been dealt with recently by Recommendation No. R (99) 8 on the "Financial liability of local elected representatives for acts or omissions in the course of their duties".
The issue of the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in the member States has also been dealt with accordingly within the process of monitoring of compliance of member States' commitments established pursuant to the Committee of Ministers' Declaration of 10 November 1994, while the said monitoring process was, in the course of 1998, devoted to a significant extent to the question of implementation of commitments in the field of local democracy.
As for paragraphs 10 and 11 of the Recommendation, it is worth mentioning that since 1996 eleven more member States - Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom - have ratified the Charter and three other member states - Albania, Ireland and Slovakia - have signed it.
As regards the request that a Protocol be drawn up to amend the Charter so that non-member states could accede to it, the Committee of Ministers takes the view that the priority on implementation of the Charter should be to focus efforts and resources on States within the Organisation. The appropriate forum to take forward consideration of any wider application of the principles in the Charter is the United Nations, which already has on the table a proposal from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS-Habitat) for a World Charter of Local Self-Government. As this proposal is modelled very closely on the European Charter of Local Self Government, the Committee of Ministers is therefore of the opinion that a Protocol is not needed."