Group of Eminent Persons of the Council of Europe

“Living together in the 21^st century Europe – the pan-European project”

5^th meeting

Brussels, 17-18 March 2011

Hearing: “The role of institutions in shaping the way we live together in Europe’s culturally diverse societies”

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

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I wish to thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to your important work. The title of your project is telling, and I strongly believe that local and regional authorities have a major role to play in making sure that our citizens live together in peace and prosperity across the European continent.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is a representative assembly for more than 200,000 territorial communities from 47 countries. This gives us an opportunity to compare local and regional situations and practices Europe-wide, and to pull together various experiences. On this basis, I would like to share with you some observations which could hopefully give rise to policy recommendations from your Group. We would also welcome an opportunity to have an exchange of views with a member of your Group during the 21^st session of the Congress, in October this year.

Our first recommendation would be to create a common European space for increased citizen participation, based on an appropriate legal framework. If we indeed have a “crisis of European democracy” today, which was the title of a Parliamentary Assembly report in 2010, it is due to a growing gap between democratic institutions and the citizens. The public perception is that the two seem to exist separately, with people feeling increasingly alienated from decision-making and losing trust in politics and politicians.

This calls for policy response, and we are convinced that in today’s Europe, the traditional system of representative democracy needs to incorporate elements of direct democracy. Democratic participation of citizens can no longer be limited to voting in elections, and citizen consultations must become more constant. New technologies offer opportunities for it (so-called e-participation, e-inclusion and the provision of e-services). 

The local level seems to be a logical starting point to apply new methods. Local and regional authorities are still enjoying a healthy 50 per cent approval rating: according to the 2009 Eurobarometer report on the subject, half of the citizens trust their local and regional authorities, while only one third (34%) tend to trust their country’s government. Thus, local democratic institutions are still filling in the gap of the democratic deficit, which is not surprising: the level closest to the citizen provides the most tangible opportunities for people’s participation and self-expression.

The Congress has been testing the ground for bringing together local residents and their authorities in the framework of the European Local Democracy Week, marked every year in October. Last year, 170 municipalities in 24 countries took part and reported activities. Some towns are now also introducing in their by-laws regular town meetings to exchange views with residents, and the “neighbourhood councils” initiative is gaining ground in cities for smaller city districts.

It is clear that citizen participation must be integrated into all levels of governance, and must involve all residents without exception, for the benefit of both the majority and minority population. However, specific population groups today require additional attention and efforts – young people, women and people with disabilities, as well as minorities, Roma and Travellers, migrants and foreign residents. The role of the grassroots level in creating conditions for their participation and integration is particularly crucial.

In the Congress, we can attest that the number of local and regional initiatives for more participation and better integration is growing. For example, setting up youth assemblies and even children’s councils in municipalities and regions is becoming a more and more common practice, not least thanks to the Charter for youth participation, advocated by the Congress. Some municipalities raise awareness through Integration Days, for example in Austria. Others take measures to encourage women to run in local elections – these practices were included in a recent Congress recommendation for boosting women’s participation in local politics. 

But today, I would like to emphasise the need for special action with regard to minorities, migrants and Roma. Citizen participation must involve all, and our second recommendation would be to institutionalise the participation of community residents that are not citizens of the country of residence.

One way towards this objective is, for example, through representative structures at local and regional level (such as consultative councils of foreign residents, of migrants or of ethnic minorities) and the right to vote in local elections for non-EU citizens. The Congress has long been advocating local consultative councils for foreign residents and migrants, and this practice is gaining ground. For example, we are currently helping to launch the first national network of such councils in France, with 18 participating municipalities.

As for the right to vote in local elections, 24 European countries today currently give this right to non-EU residents (with or without the right to be elected), some on the basis of their bilateral agreements with other countries.[1] Foreign residents’ groups themselves see the right to vote as a major requirement, second maybe only to their access to rights and legal protection. Local voting achieves several objectives: it shows recognition of foreign residents as equal citizens; it gives them a voice and a means of political expression; it gives them a feeling of participation and empowerment as they take part in decision-making and their vote counts; finally, it gives them a better opportunity to elect one of their own and to be represented on the local council. After all, they are part of the community fabric as local residents.

The right to a local vote also makes local politicians pay more attention to the problems of this group in order to get their vote. In the long run, it reduces frustration among foreign residents and thus tensions in the community. (In the absence of local voting, representative structures such as consultative councils of foreign residents serve the same objectives and may fill this void up to the point).

Local integration will also create conditions for better relations and dialogue between different community groups. Over the past few years, the Congress has made a number of proposals for local integration of migrants, on the basis of specific municipal experiences brought together by the Cities for Local Integration Policy Network, or CLIP. They concern housing and improving living conditions of migrant workers and greater diversity in local employment. Next week, we will debate our next recommendation in this regard, on reducing intercultural and interfaith tensions between community groups.

These proposals have direct practical implications, and some of them are already being implemented – for example, lifting excessive linguistic requirements for certain types of municipal jobs to allow for employment of migrants, or private-public partnerships for affordable housing, with the city renting from private owners to sublet to migrant families.

Other proposals will need further development: for example, the Congress will now be looking into one idea proposed in our report on reducing intercultural and interfaith tensions between community groups – namely, city identity as a unifying factor and city identity-building as a means of bringing cultural groups together. This is because many young people, especially those of a migrant background, identify first and foremost with the city they live in, rather than the region or nation as a whole.

A special case of local integration is the situation of Roma. The Congress is aware of numerous local and regional initiatives in this regard, and a number of existing municipal networks are paying greater attention to this problem – for example, Inclusive Cities, Romnet, CLIP which I have already mentioned, Eurocities, the Strasbourg Club or Intercultural Cities – a project which will also be presented to you today. My home city, Manchester, is launching an initiative for Roma, as are many other European municipalities, some of which have joined into national networks – for example, in Greece and France.

The Congress is currently planning to bring these various activities together into a cooperation framework, allowing for the sharing of good practices and coordination of action. Our first step in this direction is to convene a Summit of Mayors for representatives of municipalities and networks involved with the issue. We will also be preparing a report with specific proposals for Roma integration at local and regional level, with a debate on the subject scheduled for our session next week. In addition, the Congress is launching the 3^rd edition of the Dosta!-Congress prize for Municipalities, which is awarded for innovative local projects in favour of Roma integration.

Our experience shows that networking at local and regional level is a particularly practical way of sharing experience on what works on the ground, pulling together resources and implementing specific proposals. Today, we are witnessing a growing practice of European municipalities joining into networks to address specific issues of community development – something that should be encouraged. I have already mentioned CLIP and Intercultural Cities; there are also Cities for Children that offer good practices in building a child-friendly urban environment; Energy Cities that deal with the use of green technologies in building construction and energy provision; Cities for Human Rights that look at ways to improve conditions for the exercise of and access to human rights at local level, to name but a few.

Networking is also a practical means of building local democracy and restoring communities in post-conflict situations. For example, in 1993 the Congress founded its first local democracy agencies in the post-war Western Balkans which saw a great success as focal points for partnerships in restoration efforts. Since then, they have evolved into an Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA) in South-East Europe and South Caucasus, with more than 160 members, ranging from local and regional authorities to smaller non-governmental organisations dealing with human rights, local democracy and active citizenship.

Our next recommendation would be therefore to strengthen the framework for inter-municipal and inter-regional cooperation, allowing in particular for cooperation between EU and non-EU municipalities and regions. The initial framework for cross-border cooperation, based on the 1980 Madrid convention for transfrontier cooperation and its protocols, is already in place and should be developed further, in the spirit of European integration.

All these measures for citizen participation, integration and pan-European local and regional cooperation would be necessary steps for managing European cultural diversity.

Local and regional authorities also have a key role to play in this process of building harmonious relations between different community groups, and reducing tensions between them, which usually pass along cultural and religious lines (normally, with the ethnicity issue in the background). As living together means interaction, in diverse communities this interaction necessarily becomes intercultural and interreligious, and requires dialogue between groups in order to be peaceful.

This challenge ranks high on the list of priorities for local and regional level, after the need for more powers for local and regional authorities – both in terms of adequate competences and sufficient local and regional financing – and the need for raising awareness of community problems. In this regard, the Congress supports in particular the already-mentioned project of Intercultural Cities. In particular, Congress proposals for developing intercultural municipal policies provided for making such environments as habitat, school, work and leisure conducive to cross-cultural interaction, and introducing representatives of cultural groups into municipal staff and services.

In conclusion, I would like to stress that cultural diversity is certainly a pan-European issue as there are almost no mono-ethnic communities left in Europe today. From non-citizens in Latvia to minarets in Switzerland to attacks on Christians in Turkey, this is a pan-European problem. And to a very large extent, this is a local and regional problem. The conditions for integration and dialogue may be different in various parts of Europe but the underlying causes of the problem are the same: degree of acceptance and integration of The Other represented by minority groups (cultural, ethnic religious). The culture of acceptance must be promoted at European and national level, but it is nurtured and practiced first and foremost in families and communities.

Thank you.