SIGMA Support for Improvement in Governance and Management A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, principally financed by the EU

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1 SIGMA Support for Improvement in Governance and Management A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, principally financed by the EU INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT ON THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBER STATES MR. GIOVANNI DI STASI, PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONFERENCE : PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM AND TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION: EMPOWERING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ANKARA 28 February 1 March 2006 This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein are those of the author, and can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OECD and its member countries or of the beneficiary countries participating in the SIGMA Programme.

2 Mr. GIOVANNI DI STASI Born at Cercemaggiore (Campobasso) in Italy in 1950, Mr. di Stasi is President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe since 2004.He holds a degree in foreign languages and literature, and started his career in teaching. In 1975, he was elected municipal councilor at Casacalenda (Campobasso) and served as mayor of Casacaleda from 1980 to Mr. di Stasi was founder and regional secretary of the Local Authorities League from 1980 to 1990, to be followed by a term as Regional Councilor from 1990 to 1994.He served as a Member of the Italian Parliament from 1994 to 1996 and from 1996 to Before becoming President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Mr di Stasi was President of his region (Regione Molise) from 2000 to 2002 and President of the Chamber of Regions at the Council of Europe from 2002 to

3 Mr Chairman, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure and honour to address this Conference as President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Today we are talking about two European institutions the European Union and the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe is a pan-european Organisation uniting 46 European democracies, almost the entire continent of Europe, with the sole and regrettable exception of Belarus. There is a big debate going on about the relationship between the European Union and the Council of Europe. We believe that we need to cooperate better. The Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr Juncker, is currently preparing a report on this and has almost completed his task. Recently there has been a great deal of discussion about whether Turkey belongs to Europe. For us at the Council of Europe, this question has been clear from the outset: Turkey joined the Council of Europe just a few months after our Organisation was founded, in Since then, Turkey has always been a very active member state of the Council of Europe in its Committee of Ministers, in its Parliamentary Assembly and in its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, established in In fact, the President of one of the two Chambers of the Congress the Chamber of Regions Mr Yavuz Mildon is Turkish. This means that Turkish representatives are not observers, they have an important role within the Council of Europe. We strongly believe that Turkey has to join all the European institutions. Turkey will bring added value to Europe. We must not miss this opportunity to work together. Within the Council of Europe, the Congress, which I represent, brings together more than 200,000 territorial communities across Europe. It operates on the basis of the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which marked its 20 th anniversary last year. The main objective of the Congress is the strengthening of local and regional self-government and the advancement of democracy at local and regional level, at the level closest to the citizen where good governance can be best delivered. The principle of subsidiarity is the key principle of the European Charter, but there are others, such as the principle of solidarity. When you are given new opportunities this brings with it new responsibilities. Our work therefore is aimed at accelerating and deepening the process of decentralisation in Europe the decentralisation of power from the national level to territorial communities, the transfer of competences from central governments to regional and local authorities the transfer which, we insist, must be accompanied by the corresponding transfer of the financial means necessary to fulfil the new tasks. One year ago I had the pleasure of a long discussion with Prime Minister Erdogan. As the former mayor of Istanbul, he has a strong culture of local self-government. He spoke of his commitment to decentralisation. I was pleased to hear from Mr Dincer this morning that the Turkish government has not changed its mind on this issue. Of course, this decentralisation process, the transfer of power and elections at local and regional level, must be monitored to make sure that the recommendations of the Congress to national governments are followed up and that the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government are put into practice. Under its statutory resolution, the Congress monitors the state of local and regional democracy in all Council of Europe member states, regardless of whether they are relatively old or relatively new. We take the same approach to Norway as we do to Romania. Each country which ratified the Charter and the vast majority have done so, including Turkey has taken upon itself a commitment to respect it and apply its principles. This is why the Congress prepares periodic country-by-country reports evaluating the 3

4 state of local and regional democracy in member states, which we call monitoring reports. On the basis of these reports, the Congress adopts resolutions and recommendations, addressed to national governments but also to local and regional authorities. We see this process the process of monitoring as a process of dialogue between equals, not as parental control. We discuss our recommendations with national governments in an open atmosphere, trying to persuade them to improve their laws and practices in the field of local and regional democracy when it is necessary. As I have just mentioned, the monitoring process applies equally to all member states, and Turkey is no exception. As recently as November 2005, at its autumn session, the Congress debated a report on local and regional democracy in Turkey, and adopted a recommendation. The report, which was prepared by Congress members Anders Knape from Sweden and Hans-Ulrich Stockling from Switzerland, was the result of the second full investigation of the situation of local and regional democracy in this country, the first having been completed in Several of you who have spoken to me about this report have taken part in the monitoring activities. In its recommendation, the Congress acknowledged that in recent years there have been clear signs of a commitment to a substantial institutional change showed by the Turkish government as regards modernisation of local as well as provincial government. We have noted that the Turkish government has embarked upon a substantial reform programme of legislative change. However, the programme is still in the course of implementation, and the Congress stands ready to help the Turkish government in carrying it out. The Congress noted that four main long-awaited legislative measures (the Law on Metropolitan Municipalities, the Law on Municipalities, the Law on the Special Provincial Administration and the Law on Associations/Unions of Municipalities) have reached the statute book. It was also understood that further legislative proposals were also under consideration by the government, which may include a law on village administration, a law on municipal revenues and a law on public service. This list is important because it is appreciated that local government reform in Turkey will be fully effective only if a broad package of measures, including these proposed laws, can be enacted. The Congress view at this stage is that it is essential that the laws already adopted are completed by the remainder of the overall reform package (including, above all, the financial reforms) before one can be confident of the prospect of real governmental change on the ground. We have to transfer competences and financial resources. In its recommendation adopted after the debate of the report, the Congress called on the Turkish authorities to continue the reforms and modernisation of local and provincial government s legal basis, in close consultation with the Turkish Association of Local Authorities. Decentralisation needs to be stepped up at provincial level to make the provinces strong enough to take over a large proportion of public affairs by using their own resources. Turkey has made significant progress at the provincial level. Provincial councils can now elect their own chairpersons. But we believe that the efforts must continue, and I am pleased to say that we see a clear commitment of the Turkish government to do so. Every country has to implement the provisions of the European Charter on local self-government. Turkey, with its own culture and traditions, has the instruments that it needs to prepare its new institutional architecture. But, at the Council of Europe, we are convinced that the European Charter is a key legal instrument for all the member states which have ratified it. 4

5 In referring to the European Charter, let me speak of my own country Italy. In Italy we have changed our institutional architecture. We have introduced a type of federal organisation. At the beginning of the 1990s we passed a series of laws giving powers to the local authorities the municipalities. We passed laws for the direct election of mayors, of the presidents of provinces and, later on, for the election of the presidents of regions. We have changed the law concerning the organisation of the presidency of the Council of Ministers; we have changed the distribution of public powers, delegating all possible competences to the local and regional levels. But it has always been understood that the unity of the state is not in question. In Italy we have a lot of laws, too many, some 150,000 of them. We have begun the process of simplifying and reducing the laws and producing legal codes. One of the first of these codes concerns local selfgovernment. Simple laws, clear laws. This is the experience of my country. I could also speak of what we have been doing in Russia, Ukraine and the countries of the South Caucasus. At the recent Zagreb conference, we supported the creation of a link between ten ministers responsible for local affairs in South-East Europe as well as a network of national associations for that area. We are in the process of doing something similar for the countries of the South Caucasus. Here, Turkey has an important role to play, supporting such initiatives in neighbouring countries. It could serve as a model for other states. It is important that a country like Turkey assumes its responsibilities in both internal and external activities aimed at the reinforcement of territorial governance. When we speak of strong self-government, we are referring to many things. First of all we are talking about strengthening local democracy. In a large and complex state like Turkey, there need to be many places where decisions are taken by elected representatives. We need to deliver high quality public services. This can only be done at the local level where there are people with the appropriate competences and responsibilities. We also have to look at competition between territorial systems, and this requires a good system of territorial governance. So, at the Congress, we have created a new strategy, based on the Euro-regions. In the new Adriatic region we have asked all the main partners to work together and assume their responsibilities in a new Council of the Adriatic. This will strengthen the whole region, developing strong links between the various political, economic and social systems. We are asking Turkey to be very active in the creation of a new Black Sea region. The first conference to prepare the Black Sea Euro-region will take place in Constanta, Romania at the end of March, under the Romanian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. Because the Congress believes that innovative practices should be shared and made known, we are preparing the establishment of a Centre on interregional and transborder cooperation in St Petersburg, to achieve a better political, economic and social cohesion among European regions and also at local level not only bordering regions, but the regions across the entire continent. Here, too, I am sure that Turkey can and will make an important contribution. In conclusion, I would like to stress that the Congress, and I personally, strongly believe that what is important for our democracy today is the shift of power political and economic towards territorial communities, towards regional and local level. It is clear that in order to make sure that European democracy continues to develop, we need to give the power back to the people. As I have said at the outset, it is at this level where good governance can be delivered best, and is felt the most. As we expect that Turkey will continue to be very active in implementing its project to become a modern democracy with a strong network of territorial public powers, I am sure that we can also expect from 5

6 Turkey a great contribution to the implementation of the Black Sea Euro-Region and the St Petersburg centre on interregional and transborder cooperation. It is clear from our monitoring exercise that Turkey has begun to decentralise and that there is a strong political will to create a modern democracy. There is also the recognition that this will be accompanied by the transfer of the necessary technical skills. For its part, the Council of Europe and its Congress will continue to actively support the Turkish project of decentralisation and the democratic modernisation of this country. Thank you for your attention. 6