Strasbourg, 17 September 2010 CDLR(2010)24
Item 4.2 of the agenda
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY
(CDLR)
UTRECHT REVIEWS
For guidance
Secretariat Memorandum
prepared by the
Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs
Directorate of Democratic Institutions
 |
Introduction
In the Declaration adopted at the Utrecht conference, the Ministers responsible for local and regional government agreed to undertake a review of four distinct topics. The first two relate to (a) the relationship between the intergovernmental sector and the Congress and (b) the country monitoring by the Congress and would be conducted by the Ministers with an invitation to the Congress to join in, while the second two would cover (c) a possible common agenda setting by the Ministers and the Congress and (d) the evaluation of the work of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy, and should be done jointly by the Ministers and the Congress, once the first two are implemented.
The Ministers entrusted their colleague, the Minister of territorial policy of Spain, Mr Manuel Chaves, with the task of ensuring continuity of work between the sessions of the conference, which would include the “reviews” decided at Utrecht.
At the initiative of the CDLR, an advisory group has been established in order to act as a “sounding board” for the Minister and his rapporteur, Mr Enrique Ojeda, Director-General of Cooperacion Autonomica in the same ministry.
The representatives of the CDLR in the advisory group are Mr Auke van der Goot (Netherlands), Mr Paul-Henri Philips (Belgium) and Mr Paul Rowsell (United Kingdom). They are all members of the Bureau. Mr Kimmo Collander is also a member of the advisory group in his capacity as special advisor to the Finnish Minister of Local government (previously Minister Mari Kiviniemi, now Mr Tapani Tölli).
The advisory group held a first meeting on 21 June in Paris, to exchange views on the outline for the implementation of the reviews and the roadmap established by Mr Ojeda. Members recommended that:
a) the four reviews be conducted simultaneously, in the framework of a single process and report;
b) the Minister send a letter to his colleagues requesting their input on the basis of a short questionnaire drawing on the working paper prepared for the 21 June meeting. Input from Congress and national associations of local authorities should also be solicited;
c) the group meet again in September/October to react to the first paper established by the rapporteur on the basis of the replies received to the above-mentioned questionnaire;
d) Minister Chaves consider favourably the possibility of addressing the Congress at its next session in October 2010;
e) the process be completed and the report published in early 2011 in time for the CDLR at its meeting in Spring 2011 to consider and prepare the appropriate decisions for the Ministers to adopt at the Kiyv conference.
Mr Ojeda signalled his consent with these suggestions.
At the meeting, the Congress representatives informed the group of the steps recently taken by the Congress towards its own internal reform which include a streamlining of structures and a reprioritisation of activities around monitoring, human rights and election observation.
Meanwhile, Minister Chaves has written to his colleagues as concerns the reviews (see Appendix) and a questionnaire (to CDLR members and observers) has been sent out by his rapporteur, Mr Ojeda, with the following questions:.
“A. In the Utrecht Declaration, the Ministerial Conference agreed to undertake a review of the present situation of the functioning of co-operation between the Congress and the intergovernmental sector with a view to securing high quality outcomes and facilitating each other’s work so that projects can de dealt with swiftly.
Questions
A.1 From your point of view, how do you assess the functioning of the co-operation between the Congress and the intergovernmental sector in the Council of Europe?
A.2 Do you have any suggestions for change or improvement?
B. In the same Declaration, the Ministers also agreed to undertake a review of all aspects of country monitoring, including systematisation, priority setting, follow up work on Congress recommendations from the monitoring and future compliance with them, and NGO’s involvement.
“Questions
B.1 From your point of view, how do you assess country monitoring in all its aspects?
B.2 Do you have any suggestions for change or improvement?
C. In the Utrecht Declaration the Ministerial conference further agreed to invite the Congress to work with it towards developing the Council of Europe’s local and regional democracy agenda which should, as far as possible, reflect a common understanding between the Congress and the Ministerial conference.
Questions
C.1 Have you discussed this issue with your national delegation to the Congress? If so, what were the outcomes of this discussion? If not, do you intend to hold such discussions?
C.2 Do you have any suggestions for items to be included in this agenda?
C.3 What procedure would you suggest for the preparation and adoption of an agenda that reflects, as far as possible, a common understanding between the Congress and the Ministerial conference?
D. The Conference finally agreed to invite the Congress to work with it towards establishing the modalities for concluding periodic evaluations by independent, jointly appointed experts of the functioning of the work of the Council of Europe for the promotion of local and regional democracy, from all perspectives.
Questions
D.1 Have you discussed this approach with your national delegation to the Congress? If so, what were the outcomes of this discussion? If not, do you intend to hold such discussions?
D.2 Do you have any suggestions for taking this approach forward?”
As replies to this questionnaire have been requested by 15 September 2010, the Rapporteur, with the support of the CDLR Bureau, suggests the CDLR hold an exchange of views drawing on the replies.
The Congress will also be invited participate in this exchange of views at the CDLR meeting.
Action required
Members are invited to prepare for an exchange of views on the basis of the response by their respective Minister to the letter of Minister Chaves and the questionnaire.
The CDLR is invited to hold an exchange of views and to give the Rapporteur any observations, conclusions and recommendations it deems appropriate.