Ministers’ Deputies
Notes on the Agenda
CM/Notes/808/10.2 (restricted) 6 September 2002
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808 Meeting, 18 September 2002
10 Legal questions
10.2 13th Session of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional government (Helsinki, 27‑28 June 2002)
Report by the Secretary General
Reference documents
CM(2002)125
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Action The Deputies are invited, in particular, to assign to the Steering Committee for Local and Regional Democracy ad hoc terms of reference to the effect that it elaborates “drafts for legal instruments of different types” on regional self‑government, and to take note of the report by the Secretary General as it appears in CM(2002)125, as a whole. |
The 13th Session of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional government took place in Helsinki on 27-28 June 2002. The report of the Secretary General appears in document CM(2002)125.
The Conference addressed the issue of regional self-government and subsidiarity, and, in particular, as requested by the Committee of Ministers, the issue of the “nature of the instrument to be adopted” in the light of the models and principles elaborated by the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR).
The Helsinki Declaration on Regional Self-Government adopted by the Ministers contains a number of pronouncements about the role and functions of decentralisation and regional democracy in Europe’s democratic societies. Given its character, the Declaration could be given a wider circulation and in particular be sent to the international institutions particularly concerned with local democracy issues, such as the United Nations (in view of their work on a World Charter of Local Self-Government), the European Union (bearing in mind the work in progress in the framework of the Convention), the OSCE and the OECD.
As regards the specific request for an opinion made by the Committee of Ministers, the Conference expressed itself in favour of “a European legal instrument which takes into account member states’ experience” (paragraph 11), acknowledged that such a legal instrument should conform to a series of broadly accepted criteria (paragraphs 12 to 17) and stipulated the main features that such an instrument should have (paragraph 18 a-d).
As regards the “nature of the instrument” to be adopted, the Conference did not express a preference for either type of legal instrument that the Council of Europe is entitled to adopt (i.e. conventions and recommendations) but rather recommended to the Committee of Ministers “to give terms of reference to the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy to elaborate drafts for legal instruments of different types, having regard to the proposals made during the Conference and to the developing experience of member states, and addressing the need for an appropriate relationship with the [European Charter of Local Self-Government]”.
When proposing this text, the Chair of the Conference made it clear that “legal instruments of different types” denotes both conventions and recommendations.
The Deputies might wish to adopt the draft terms of reference reproduced at the Appendix to these Notes.
The Conference also accepted the invitation made by the Head of the Hungarian Delegation to host the next Conference in 2004 in Budapest “in order to examine the results of the work carried out by then on the legal instrument on regional self-government”.
The Deputies will be invited to take note of this invitation and of the fact that the 14th session of the Conference will take place in 2004 in Budapest, at one of their forthcoming meetings, under the item of their agenda devoted to the preparation of Conferences of specialised ministers.
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Financing assured: YES |
DRAFT DECISIONS
808th meeting – 18 September 2002
Item 10.2
13th Session of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional government (Helsinki, 27-28 June 2002) - Report by the Secretary General
Decisions
The Deputies
1 took note of the Helsinki Declaration on Regional Self-Government, adopted by the 13th session of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional government (Helsinki, 27‑28 June 2002), as it appears in Appendix III to CM(2002)125;
2 agreed to communicate it to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to the European Union, the OSCE and the OECD;
3 assigned ad hoc terms of reference to the Steering Committee for Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) as they appear in Appendix … to this volume of Decisions (see Appendix to these Notes);
4. took note of the report of the Secretary General as it appears in CM(2002)125, as a whole.
Appendix
Decision CM/…/…
Ad hoc terms of reference
1. Name of the Committee
Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR)
2. Source of the terms of reference
Committee of Ministers
3. Completion date
31 December 2003
4. Terms of reference
To elaborate drafts for legal instruments of different types on regional self-government.
To this end, the CDLR shall:
a) bear in mind the Helsinki Declaration on Regional Self-Government as a whole
b) be aware that “legal instruments of different types” denotes both conventions and recommendations
c) base itself on the guidelines contained in paragraph 18 of the said Declaration
d) take into account the proposals made during the Conference of European Ministers responsible for local and regional government (Helsinki, 27-28 June 2002) and in particular, with regard to a possible convention, the Chair’s proposal that it could take the form of an optional protocol to the European Charter of Local self-Government, and the Italian proposal that a provision could be included granting those states which so wish the possibility of confining themselves, where their regional institutions are concerned, to the legal guarantees contained in the European Charter of Local Self-Government
e) have regard to the developing experiences of member states.
In order to fulfil these terms of reference, the CDLR can establish working parties and/or have recourse to a consultant.
5. Name of the Committee(s) to which these terms of reference are communicated for information
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