Committee of Ministers, Rapporteur Group on Democracy (GR-DEM)

Meeting of 9 September 2014

Exchange of views with Mr Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Chair of the Congress Governance Committee and thematic Spokesperson on co-operation with the Council of Europe intergovernmental sector

Introductory speech by Karl-Heinz Lambertz

Dear Chair, distinguished Ambassadors,

I am very pleased to introduce this first exchange between the Congress and the GR-DEM, under your chairmanship. Let me begin by expressing the hope that this will continue the valuable contribution that Norway has made to the work of the Congress, both through its strong national association and in the person of Halvdan Skard (our president from 2006 to 2008).

Although in some ways today’s exchange of views is breaking new ground, it is also a natural step in a process that the Congress began several years ago, to strengthen the political dialogue between the Congress and the Committee of Ministers.

Strengthening this political dialogue between the instances of the Council of Europe is a priority for the Congress. We are pleased to note that we are continuing to make progress in this respect. The Congress Bureau has held exchanges of views with your two predecessors (Ambassador Gacek of Poland and, more recently, in February of this year, with Ambassador Berends of the Netherlands).

As part of this process of further developing our institutional dialogue, the Congress has appointed me “Thematic Spokesperson on co-operation with the Council of Europe intergovernmental sector”.  I am honoured to be the first person to hold this position and it is a role that I consider to be very important.

Local and regional authorities are increasingly important actors in responding to today’s political challenges, and have become key partners of national governments in this respect. The Congress is at the forefront of this action, as the only political assembly in Europe that regularly monitors the development of local and regional democracy, reports to the Committee of Ministers, presents recommendations and works for their implementation.

You have entrusted us with this important role, and we are engaged in regular political dialogue with your national authorities on local and regional government issues, through our monitoring, election observation and post-monitoring. As a result of this dialogue, we are developing our co-operation activities and participation in the Council of Europe action plans for specific countries. The reactions from member states have been very encouraging and we are receiving more and more requests from governments of member states for this kind of cooperation.

We are determined to continue expanding our synergies with the intergovernmental sector and other institutional partners, both within and outside the Organisation, with a view to becoming not only a more pertinent political assembly but also an action-driven and result-oriented operational body.

Let me underline the political nature of this dialogue. We are appointed to the Congress as politicians, as elected representatives in our respective countries. The Congress is a political assembly with a unique mandate– the child of a special historical sequence of events – which affords the Council of Europe an unequalled and unparalleled opportunity for political dialogue with local and regional authorities in its Member States. It is important that the Council of Europe makes the most of this opportunity.

Political dialogue between different levels of government is of crucial importance. It is a major issue in many of our member states. The absence of such dialogue can lead to unnecessary tension and conflict and a huge waste of energy and resources. It is important to take a lead here and show an example.

We are applying the concept of synergy at a practical level and engaging in constructive dialogue with different levels of government. We do practice such dialogue with several of your steering committees. We reaffirm our availability and openness to such cooperation.

As a Belgian politician for thirty-three years and a former Minister-President of a region in a federal system for fifteen years, I know the importance of dialogue. Talking is often the only way to get things moving. We need to sit together and put our cards on the table. Above all we need to listen to each other and take on board what the others are saying.

You may wonder what we hope to achieve – what are our priorities for our meeting today. I have just two issues to raise: firstly we propose to discuss what we refer to as “recurring issues”. When we talk of “recurring issues”, we are describing the distillation of our experience of monitoring the European Charter of Local Self-Government. This is part of our commitment to pooling and sharing the results of our monitoring exercises. Our objective is to go beyond the problems that we identify in individual countries and to identify the major issues which require action at the international level.

I refer you to the document that you have in your file, which we sent to the chair of the Committee of Ministers at the end of last year. It includes an analysis of several “Recurring issues” from our recent monitoring and election observation missions. It is our belief that each of these issues warrants an in-depth discussion with yourselves – with this committee. Let me take just three examples – local finances, consultation and competences.

Local finances are a key indicator of the health of local democracy. Local authorities need a healthy measure of freedom and flexibility with regard to raising and managing their own financial resources. Above all they need to have financial means that match their responsibilities. Too often this is not the case.

The need for effective consultation mechanisms between different levels of government is a key principle of the European Charter. However, it seems to be a principle that many countries have difficulty implementing. We need to understand why this is so and what we can do to improve matters.

The competences of local governments need to be very carefully defined – to avoid any overlap with other levels of government. The process of transferring competences from one level of government to another can also be problematic if it is not accompanied by the means to deliver the tasks that are conferred.

Secondly, we in the Congress work best when we receive substantial political replies to the recommendations that we send to the Committee of Ministers. Let me take as an example the draft reply to our Recommendation on “Regions and territories with special status in Europe”, which you will be examining this morning.

This text is the result of much discussion in the Congress and much debate and deliberation at the European level. It deserves careful analysis and consideration. We believe that it is an important contribution to a subject that, because of the complex nature of our political heritage, is preoccupying our governments more and more. We are witnessing increasing regional demands for greater autonomy and special recognition.

It is because this has proven a difficult issue that we have a particular interest in a political response from your committee. We see our recommendations to the Committee of Ministers as a contribution to our political dialogue with this body. Receiving a political response from the Committee of Ministers is of great interest and use to us.

To conclude, our belief is that, far from being a “one-off” exchange of views, today’s discussion should be regarded as a normal contact between our two bodies, and one that will become a regular occurrence.

It completes the annual exchange of views with the Congress President, the statements of the Congress Secretary General on the occasion of the biannual activity reports of the Congress and the many bilateral contacts that our president has with you the Ambassadors.

I take the opportunity to invite you, Madame chair, to continue the practice of your predecessors and to attend a meeting of the new Congress Bureau – which will be elected next month – for an exchange of views. I will end here. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thank you.