EN Official Journal of the European Union C 197/52

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on governance in the European consensus on development

(2007/C 197/09)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— believes that democratic governance is the foundation for achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) and must be based on a broad approach, and that better governance is the key to a successful development policy. The key element of good governance is a recognition that the best decisions are taken as near to grassroots level as possible;

— believes that it is not nearly enough to talk about the ‘key role that local authorities can play in achieving the MDGs’; governance requires all tiers of authority in a country to govern according to the principles of transparency, public participation and respect for subsidiarity. As a consequence,

— believes it is essential, under these circumstances, particularly for countries bordering the Mediterranean (many of which are also concerned by the Africa strategy), to reiterate the recommendations it made in its opinion of 13 October 2005 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and repeated in the conclusions of the Valencia seminar on 10 April 2007, for the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean forum of local authorities.

— draws attention to the financial support that local governance deserves: the maximum 15 % budget allocation which, under the 10th EDF regulation, may be earmarked for support for civil society, technical cooperation and governance (where this has not been chosen as a concentration area) seems manifestly inadequate; this ceiling should be raised to at least 25 %, in order to cover both the national and local dimensions.

— calls on the European Commission, in accordance with the objectives of the cooperation agreement for the development of decentralised cooperation, to provide technical and financial support and to work with the Committee on the establishment of a decentralised cooperation exchange with a view to facilitating and coordinating more effectively the development of decentralised cooperation activities conducted by EU local and regional authorities and their counterparts in developing countries.

I. Policy recommendations

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Governance in the European Consensus on Development — Towards a harmonised approach within the European Union

COM(2006) 421 final — SEC (2006) 1020, SEC (2006) 1021, SEC (2006) 1022

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1. endorses many of the general ideas set out in the Commission's communication to the effect that: a) democratic governance is the foundation for achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) and must be based on a broad approach: it should not be limited to the fight against corruption, but should stem from the interplay between various factors whose smooth running determines a country's life and progress for the benefit of all; b) the process of ownership and political dialogue should be preferred to conditions set externally that can have a negative impact on local people; c) all European donors should be given common reference points for implementing the principle of governance in their various activities, in the spirit of the Paris Declaration of 2 March 2005;

2. wishes to reaffirm the principle that it expressed in the recommendations made in its own-initiative opinion on the role of decentralised cooperation in development policy reform (CdR 224/2005), namely that better governance is the key to a successful development policy and the key element of good governance is a recognition that the best decisions are taken as near to grassroots level as possible;

3. considers as a result that the effective implementation of democratic governance means not restricting the principles set out by the Commission to national or intergovernmental level but taking on the issues of decentralisation and democracy at local level; recommends therefore planning not just for interaction between the various sectors of national life only, but also seeking good coordination between national and local tiers of government;

4. believes that it is not nearly enough to talk about the ‘key role that local authorities can play in achieving the MDGs’; governance requires all tiers of authority in a country to govern according to the principles of transparency, public participation and respect for subsidiarity. This is why implementation of the Commission communication must be based on the following principles: a) governance means the installation of credible and competent local authorities, able to deliver the advances of democratic decentralisation to their fellow citizens, respecting their rights and meeting their needs; b) all cooperation policies and programmes run by the EU — Commission and Member States alike — must take proper account of the need to give the local authorities of developing countries and countries in transition the means to shoulder the responsibilities falling to them, and to give European local authorities the means to offer support through their experience and know-how; c) progress in local governance and the obstacles it can encounter should be evaluated constantly at country level. The information garnered should be collated by regional observatories designed to be the focal points for exchanges between local elected representatives in the various countries and the dissemination of best practice. These observatories could also monitor relations between the local authorities in the region concerned and local authorities in the European Union or possibly other regions, as is the case with the Observatory for EU — Latin America Local Decentralised Cooperation, in Barcelona; in this connection, the priority today should be to establish a second observatory for relations between African, local and regional authorities; d) in general terms, the decentralisation process in the developing countries should be given special attention when drafting each country strategy paper;

5. recommends being prepared for the difficulties that may be encountered in relations with beneficiary country governments, when sub-national layers of government are taken into account, in connection with the implementation of the ownership principle proposed in the European Union's development strategy.

With regard to local authorities in developing countries, particularly those in ACP and African countries

ACP countries

6. recommends first and foremost giving full effect to the new Article 4 of the revised Cotonou Agreement and providing for proper consultation of decentralised local authorities on the fine-tuning of EU aid programmes negotiated with the government of the country concerned;

7. believes it is essential that information on the procedures and impact of this consultation be made available to associations of local elected representatives in the countries concerned;

8. welcomes in this respect the dissemination of guidelines to the Commission Delegations, so as to raise their awareness of the local dimension of EU activities, particularly in the area of governance, in line with the recommendation it made in its opinion CdR 224/2005; but regrets not having received those documents for information;

9. believes that the structure of the ‘governance profile’ should be revised as it gives little room to the principle of ownership and offers little improvement in promoting democratic governance at local level: far from being a dimension in its own right it is fragmented and divided among a number of the nine headings (1); conversely, the decentralisation dimension of a number of headings (rule of law, economic governance, etc.) deserves to be considered separately;

10. recommends, meanwhile, that the ‘governance initiative’, a financial reserve designed to act as an incentive for ‘real change and decisive progress in democratic governance’, be used primarily to develop the connection between national and local levels of government, while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and public participation, and that governments should not benefit unless they are committed to giving local authorities the funds to match the responsibilities conferred on them;

11. draws attention to the financial support that local governance deserves: the maximum 15 % budget allocation which, under the 10th EDF regulation, may be earmarked for support for civil society, technical cooperation and governance (where this has not been chosen as a concentration area) seems manifestly inadequate; this ceiling should be raised to at least 25 %, in order to cover both the national and local dimensions.

Africa

12. welcomes the fact that the reports generated by the African peer review mechanism (APRM), designed and run by the African countries themselves as part of NEPAD, can be used as the basis for the governance profile;

13. would like to see the attention and support that the EU is prepared to give to this national self-evaluation exercise contribute to boosting local authority participation and progress in decentralisation and to launching a national action programme to address the weaknesses observed;

14. reiterates that for the public to see the decentralisation of powers as genuine progress, it is vitally important to strengthen the capacity of local authorities. Action in this area can take various forms, for instance: a) providing more support for networks of local elected representatives, at national, regional or continental level (for instance the creation of the CCRA, the African branch of the UCLG); the success of the periodical meetings of Africities, as again confirmed in Nairobi in September 2006, shows that the expectations of locally elected representatives are high in this respect; b) boosting the means by which organisations such as the MDP (municipal development programme, based in Cotonou) — which provide technical support for local elected representatives and enable them to pool their ideas and experience — can increase their effectiveness; c) giving local elected representatives access to effective information technology, not least by means of the digital solidarity initiative;

15. recommends involving organisations that bring together local elected representatives and represent their concerns in the bodies that oversee political dialogue between the EU and the countries concerned, in particular the EU-Africa summit planned for the second half of 2007.

With regard to other world regions

16. is pleased to note that in Latin America, decentralisation appears to be a factor in State modernisation; and wishes to be informed of progress with the implementation of the governance programme announced for 2008 for the Asia region;

17. welcomes the fact that the ‘governance facility’ announced in the Commission communication appears in the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), and asks to be involved in the implementation of the cooperation programme between local and regional authorities in partner and EU countries beyond cross-border areas, provided for in the 2007-2010 interregional programme (IRP) from 2008;

18. is disappointed, however, that the various agreements signed between the EU and each of the countries concerned by the European neighbourhood policy give very little attention to the local dimension of governance;

19. believes it is essential, under these circumstances, particularly for countries bordering the Mediterranean (many of which are also concerned by the Africa strategy), to reiterate the recommendations it made in its opinion CdR 142/2005 of 13 October 2005 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and repeated in the conclusions of the Valencia seminar on 10 April 2007 (CdR 59/2007), for the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean forum of local authorities.

With regard to local authorities in the EU

20. recalls, first of all, its previous opinion (CdR 224/2005) calling for these authorities to be given proper consideration in European development policy, and hopes that the organisations that represent them at international and European level will be able to have an effective dialogue with the European institutions;

21. intends to play to the full its part within the European institutions as the EU body representing local authorities, which both preserve and deliver democratic governance to the people; hopes to be involved in the EU's political dialogue with the various regions of the world, particularly Africa, and believes that the forthcoming EU-Africa summit should provide the first opportunity;

22. wishes in particular to be involved in the dialogue with local authorities in the countries concerned, so as to pool ideas on the implementation of decentralisation and current practice for encouraging progress with democratic governance; considers for that reason that when the Cotonou Agreement is next revised, decentralised authorities ought to be given the same attention as economic and social interest groups in the institutional mechanism, and that the agreement should have a mechanism similar to the one currently provided for under Protocol 1.4 regarding the European Economic and Social Committee;

23. reiterates that European local authorities wish to share their experience and know-how with their counterparts in other regions of the world; they are already doing that, not least in peace-related initiatives such as the ‘diplomacy of cities’, but governance policy should also benefit from their help in various ways: a) encouraging closer links and exchanges between national associations of elected representatives from Europe and other regions of the world; b) bolstering existing ties between authorities in the realm of decentralised cooperation and, where appropriate, formalising them in networks focusing on a particular theme or geographical area; c) forging new links between European local authorities and those in other world regions by means of twinning programmes.

24. calls on the European Commission, in accordance with the objectives of the cooperation agreement for the development of decentralised cooperation, to provide technical and financial support and to work with the Committee on the establishment of a decentralised cooperation exchange with a view to facilitating and coordinating more effectively the development of decentralised cooperation activities conducted by EU local and regional authorities and their counterparts in developing countries. This cooperation exchange could take the form of an online service where assistance needs and requests could be matched with corresponding expressions of interest or offers.

Brussels, 7 June 2007. The President of the Committee of the Regions Michel DELEBARRE

II. Procedure

Title Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Governance in the European Consensus on Development — Towards a harmonised approach within the European Union References COM(2006) 421 final — 2006/1020 (SEC) 2006/1021 (SEC) 2006/1022 (SEC) Legal basis Article 265, first para, of the EC Treaty Procedural basis Date of Council referral 30.8.2006 Date of President's decision 20.11.2006 Commission responsible Commission for External Relations and Decentralised Cooperation (RELEX) Rapporteur Ms Juliette Soulabaille, Member of Corps-Nuds Municipal Council (FR/PES); Analysis 30.11.2006 Discussed in commission 25.1.2007 Date adopted by commission 29.3.2007 Result of the vote in commission Adopted unanimously. Simplified procedures, Rule 26 Date adopted in plenary 7.6.2007 Previous Committee opinions CdR 224/2005 fin (2), Decentralised cooperation in the reform of the EU's development policy. Rapporteur: Ms Juliette Soulabaille (FR/PES); adopted in plenary on 16 November 2005 CdR 142/2005 fin (3), opinion of the CoR on the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the Tenth anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: A work programme to meet the challenges of the next five years (COM(2005) 139 final). Rapporteur: Ms Terron i Cusi, (ES/PES); adopted in plenary on 13 October 2005 CdR 327/2003 fin (4), The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and local and regional authorities: the need for coordination and a specific instrument for decentralised cooperation: Rapporteurs: Mr Jacques Blanc (FR/EPP) and Mr Gianfranco Lamberti (IT/EPP)

(1) 1) Political/democratic governance, 2) political governance/rule of law: judicial and law enforcement system, 3) control of corruption, 4) government effectiveness, 5) economic governance, 6) internal and external security, 7) social governance, 8) international and regional context, 9) quality of partnership.

(2) OJ C 115, 16.5.2006, p. 42.

(3) OJ C 81, 4.4.2006, p. 46.

(4) OJ C 121, 30.4.2004, p. 18.