EN Official Journal of the European Union C 174/7

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions — Enlargement strategy and main challenges 2013-14

2014/C 174/03

Rapporteur Arnoldas Abramavičius (LT/EPP), Mayor of Zarasai and Member of the Municipal Council Reference document Commission communication — Enlargement strategy and main challenges 2013-2014 COM(2013) 700 final

I. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Political context and significance of enlargement for local and regional authorities and the CoR

1. notes that this opinion stresses its commitment to the enlargement process and draws attention to the key role of local and regional authorities in preparing both EU and candidate countries, their administrations at different levels and their citizens for enlargement; presents in the following its assessment of the progress achieved and its specific proposals for the countries of the Western Balkans (Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (1)), Turkey and Iceland as well as its indications for future developments in this area;

2. recalls that the launch of the second Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) is foreseen for 2014, with estimated funding of EUR 11,7 billion for the period 2014-2020;

3. reiterates the importance of improving economic governance and competitiveness in the pre-accession process (2) in order to fulfil the economic accession criteria, i.e. achieving the status of a functioning market economy. The Committee notes in this context the importance of ensuring that small and medium sized enterprises in the candidate countries are adequately prepared, especially those operating in non-metropolitan areas. The importance of this issue is further borne out by the fact that no Western Balkan country currently enjoys the status of a functioning market economy;

4. reiterates the importance of promoting gender equality in candidate countries and highlights the role that local and regional authorities play in raising public awareness of this issue;

5. regrets to note that Iceland's government intends to withdraw its accession application, and believes that Iceland's accession would have been a matter of mutual benefit;

6. reiterates its call on the European Commission to take into account the state of local and regional self-government in candidate and potential candidate countries as a key element of assessing the progress of decentralisation and a prerequisite for a well-functioning system of multi-level governance;

General remarks

7. strongly welcomes the two enlargement approaches recently introduced: 1) the approach adopted by the Council in 2011 whereby the chapters on judiciary and fundamental rights, on justice and on freedom and security are tackled early on in the accession negotiations, thus ensuring well-functioning juridical systems and the effective fight against organised crime and corruption are key conditions for accession and 2) the approach adopted by the Council in 2013 of tackling economic fundamentals and meeting the economic criteria first, as a key for economic development, and for creating a favourable business and investment climate;

8. notes the experience from previous rounds of enlargement, which has shown that for accession countries, the membership perspective has served as a key incentive for implementing the necessary political and economic reforms;

9. emphasises that EU enlargement is a two-way process meaning not only that accession countries need to be properly prepared, but also that the European Union must be sufficiently capable of absorbing new Member States and be committed to supporting these countries in overcoming the challenges they face;

10. believes strongly in the need to respect the principle of good neighbourly relations among EU Member States, candidate countries and other countries, and in the role and importance of developing cross-border and regional cooperation between these countries;

11. calls on the European Commission to make all the arrangements necessary to ensure that all candidate countries are able to benefit from the second Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance during their preparations for EU accession;

12. notes the importance of energy and transport interconnections for the sustainable development of the regions and welcomes the attention that the Commission has paid to this issue in its recent communication on enlargement strategy;

13. reiterating the importance of effective local and regional tiers of governance, draws attention to the recommendations on strengthening local self-government in pre-accession countries and making public administration reform a greater priority;

14. welcoming the Commission’s plans to be active in terms of promoting freedom of expression in pre-accession countries, notes that local and regional media usually have fewer financial resources and are much more sensitive to external pressures, and therefore need more assistance and training;

15. notes that the successful integration of Roma people is primarily dependent on local authorities, and calls for more attention to be placed on the capacity of local authorities in the relevant pre-accession states' to take action in this field;

16. reiterates the importance of citizen support for the enlargement process and highlights the role of local and regional authorities, as well as civil society, in mobilising citizens for this debate and in providing two-way communications between the Member States’ and the EU institutions as well as the citizens;

17. argues that the macro-regional strategies being developed are useful tools when it comes to dealing with challenges common to more than one region and to initiating practical cooperation between existing EU Member States, candidate countries and potential candidates, as joining forces enables them to use the resources available more effectively and for joint projects;

18. calls on the partners, in particular from the pre-accession countries' neighbouring EU Member States, to take advantage of the possibilities for cross-border and decentralised cooperation to ensure enhanced and wider cooperation with local and regional authorities from pre-accession countries, taking into consideration the new EU programming period for 2014-2020 and new financial support instruments;

19. expresses its wish to continue cooperating with the European Commission on the Local Administration Facility (LAF) programme, which is organised for local and regional authorities from the Western Balkans countries, Turkey and Iceland and which seeks to increase their understanding about what the EU stands for, primarily at regional and local level. The Committee suggests extending the availability of LAF to include all Eastern Partnership countries interested;

20. considers that the European Commission should take a clear position on the efforts of certain countries within the Eastern Partnership to become EU Member States;

Country-specific recommendations

Candidate countries

Iceland

21. notes the fact that Iceland, as a well-established and functioning democracy and a mature market economy, fully meets the political and economic criteria required for EU membership;

22. recalls that 27 negotiation chapters have been opened, of which 11 have been provisionally closed;

23. notes that the accession process has been put on hold by the Icelandic government and hopes that the continuation of the accession negotiations will be put to a national referendum;

24. stresses that the CoR remains fully committed to continuing its cooperation with the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities to prepare them for accession notably via the established Joint Consultative Committee, should Iceland decide to resume accession negotiations;

25. underlines that it will continue its support for capacity building at local level, for instance under the Local Administration Facility (LAF) programme;

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

26. noting that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was the first country to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU and that it was already granted candidate status in 2005, and taking into consideration the country's success in meeting the political EU membership criteria as well as the Commission’s recommendation to open accession negotiations within a period of five years of signing the SAA, regrets that the Council has postponed this decision and calls on it to take a positive decision in 2014;

27. supports the efforts of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in improving its ability to take on the obligations of membership and stresses the need for further efforts in the areas of the rule of law (including independence of the judiciary and anti-corruption measures), freedom of expression and of the media. It also emphasises that it is important to maintain good neighbourly relations, including finding a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue under the auspices of the UN;

28. welcomes the progress made towards the decentralisation of governance, a key element of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, and calls for further progress in the area of administrative and financial decentralisation, focusing in particular on the full implementation of the relevant legal framework and ensuring adequate resources and permanent consultation between central and local authorities;

29. stresses the importance of strengthening the country's administrative capacities in order to ensure the effective use and management of EU funds. It calls for more attention to be paid to limited national capacities to programme and absorb IPA funds under the decentralised implementation system and recommends strengthening national management and control systems;

30. recalls that municipal level financing is still inadequate, even though it is a prerequisite for ensuring financial sustainability. Measures in this field could include the transfer of an increased share of VAT and PIT revenue to municipalities;

31. reiterates the importance of coordinating regional development and regrets that relevant laws on regional development have not been fully implemented and that the bodies responsible for regional economic development are facing further cuts to their already insufficient budgets;

32. welcomes the significant work carried out by the ZELS, the national Association of Units of Local Self-Government, in introducing e-governance initiatives in municipal public administration and calls for this experience to be shared. It urges central government to support the activities of the ZELS training centre in order to increase the capacities of local administrations;

Montenegro

33. welcomes the achievements of Montenegro in state and local self-government building since its declaration of independence in 2006;

34. notes the progress achieved in the accession negotiations which began in June 2012 and welcomes the opening of negotiations on chapters 23 — Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, 24 — Justice, Freedom and Security, 20 — Enterprise and industrial policy, 6 – Company Law and 5 – Public Procurement following the provisional closure of two chapters (science and research; education and culture);

35. welcomes the fact that structures have been set up for the accession negotiations which include representatives of civil society and that additional efforts have been made to increase transparency and citizen participation in the policy-making process;

36. calls on the Montenegrin government to continue reforms to establish a transparent, efficient and accountable administration and encourages the swift implementation of the new law on civil servants and state employees at local level;

37. indicates that IPA is a key test field for a candidate state's capacities to manage ongoing pre-accession funds and Structural Funds after membership and calls on Montenegro to strengthen its administrative capacity in the established IPA structures and take action to adequately prepare them in order to increase the absorption capacity of pre-accession funds;

38. notes that Montenegro must continue its work towards meeting the economic criteria for membership, ensuring that its small and medium enterprises are adequately prepared to withstand the competitive pressures of membership;

Serbia

39. welcomes the decision to launch accession negotiations with Serbia in January 2014which confirmed Serbia's path towards EU accession. It also welcomes the launch of the current preparations for membership negotiations, namely the start of the analytical examination of the acquis (‘screening’) in September 2013 following the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement on 1 September;

40. underlines the importance of a peaceful and comprehensive settlement in normalising relations with Kosovo (1) and welcomes the progress achieved during 2013 towards fulfilling the political criteria of the Stabilisation and Association Process;

41. taking into consideration the importance of the regional level for sustainable development, underlines the importance of the declaration adopted by the provincial assembly of Vojvodina (3) regarding the protection of its legal rights, and points out that the law on own resources for Vojvodina, as provided for under the Serbian Constitution, has yet to be adopted;

42. calls for the continuation of the decentralisation process to further strengthen the competences of local authorities. The Committee regrets the limited involvement of the National Council for Decentralisation and the continued lack of sufficient consultation with local authorities in the decision-making process for the development of legislation that has implications at local level;

43. calls for an immediate resolution of the unregulated situation of the status of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina following the ruling by the Constitutional Court of Serbia that some provisions of the Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina are not in keeping with the Constitution;

44. points out that the implementation of the existing legal framework for local government remains very limited and that responsibilities have continued to be exercised at local level without proper analysis of the capacity and resources required. The legal framework for local self-government still remains to be clarified and properly implemented;

45. welcomes the progress in the area of regional policy and the coordination of structural instruments and points out that adequate implementation capacity needs to be further ensured at local level, especially in the form of a solid project pipeline based on relevant strategies;

46. would draw attention to the Commission's call for Serbia to continue to work to strengthen the rule of law, to fight corruption and organised crime, and to promote media freedom, anti-discrimination and protection of minorities;

47. proposes the creation of a Joint Consultative Committee with Serbia following the entering into force of the SAA;

Turkey

48. believes that Turkey and the EU need to make every effort to move on from their current strained relationship by taking forward negotiations in the spirit of cooperation, along the lines of recent positive bilateral developments. In the interests of both parties, the prospect of Turkish membership must go hand in hand with reforms aiming to consolidate the rule of law and ensure pluralism;

49. welcomes the recent reform stepping up the powers of provincial governors, but calls for this reform to be implemented as a means of contributing to Turkish regionalisation and to strengthening regional democracy through the democratic election of governors;

50. welcomes the recent opening of negotiations on chapter 22 — Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments — and the National Strategy for Regional Development (NSRD) and hopes that these will contribute to a reduction in regional and urban-rural disparities;

51. is concerned about the difficulties some local elected representatives are facing in Turkey by exercising their functions as representatives of their constituencies, and calls for them to be treated with due regard for the law and in a climate of trust, in line with the recommendations by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (4);

52. agrees with the Commission that further changes are needed in the Turkish legal system to ensure that freedom of expression and of the media, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and of association are protected, thus securing the sustainability of current reform-oriented policies;

53. urges the regional courts of appeal which, by law should have been in operation by June 2007, to be established and the continued training of judges and prosecutors to be prioritised for the regional courts of appeal. Underlines that regional court of appeals are an important step in address the efficiency of the judicial system and reducing the current back-log of cases;

54. reiterates its dissatisfaction regarding Turkey's failure to fully abide by its commitments arising from the Additional Protocol of the EU-Turkey Association Agreement and urges Turkey to move towards full compliance, noting that further delays might impact afresh upon the accession process;

55. also points out that good neighbourhood relations are a key element of preparation for accession, thus making any kind of threat or action directed against a Member State and its sovereign rights a major breach of common European values;

56. expresses concern over recent developments in Turkey and stresses the importance of the independence of the judiciary. It recalls that Turkey is a candidate country for accession to the EU and in this respect it has committed itself to fully meeting the Copenhagen political criteria;

57. notes that concerns have been expressed that the Turkish government does not always conduct sufficient consultations and impact assessments with local authorities, including on key legislation such as the recent Law on Metropolitan Municipalities, a comprehensive debate on which could have served as a positive step in this direction and could have genuinely helped to implement the multi-level governance principle;

58. welcomes recent progress in terms of devolving power to local governments, some signs of which can be seen in the new Law on Metropolitan Municipalities, which has extended the scope of municipal competences and partially addressed the criticism from the Congress of the Council of Europe (5) concerning the poor capacity of smaller municipalities to deliver public services. The Committee regrets, however, that the Congress' recommendations on strengthening municipalities by enabling them to raise their own revenue have not been implemented;

59. welcomes the fact that decentralisation and the devolution of powers to local government were discussed in the context of the work on a new Constitution, the recently introduced democratisation package and in relation to Kurdish and other minority rights, and underlines the growing consensus on the need to overcome Turkey's reservations regarding the Council of Europe’s European Charter of Local Self-Government;

60. strongly welcomes the provisions of the democratisation package, which decentralised the education system and promotion rights of political parties enabling the use of dialects and languages other than Turkish; welcomes that the package will enable the former names to be restored to settlement places where the name was in a language other than Turkish or written using non-Turkish characters;

61. calls on the Turkish authorities to cooperate closely with the European Commission to assess which programmes under IPA could be used to promote sustainable development in the South East of Turkey in the framework of negotiations on Chapter 22;

62. is concerned about the very low level of female participation in local politics and calls on all political parties to nominate more women as candidates for the next local elections;

63. welcomes the strengthening of the institutions involved in the implementation of Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) through training and technical assistance and recommends that further efforts be deployed in order to increase the administrative capacity of local authorities;

64. supports further measures which aim to increase transparency and supports the continued fight against corruption, especially at municipal level, as well as measures aimed at increasing transparency, accountability and participation;

65. calls on Turkey and the other parties involved to actively support current UN negotiations aimed at finding a fair, comprehensive and enduring solution to the Cyprus question, and on Turkey to assist the peace process by beginning to withdraw its military forces from Cyprus as well as to return the sealed-off zone of Famagusta to its lawful inhabitants, in accordance with the relevant Security Council decisions and the principles on which the EU is founded;

66. taking into consideration the ongoing negotiations, reiterates its request for the Committee of the Regions' Working Group with Turkey to be upgraded to a Joint Consultative Committee;

Potential candidate countries

67. taking into consideration the aspiration of potential candidate countries to make progress towards membership and the increasing intensity of contacts involving local and regional actors, looks forward to the establishment of Joint Consultative Committees with each potential candidate country from the Western Balkans region;

Albania

68. notes the progress made towards ensuring the principles of free and fair competition in national (6) and local elections (2011) (7) as well as overall progress in terms of meeting the political conditions required for opening negotiations on EU membership;

69. reiterates the Commission’s recommendation of October 2012 and 2013 to grant Albania candidate status, subject to a number of structural reforms, and urges Albania to make progress in the areas of public administration reform, judicial independence, the fight against corruption and organized crime as well as the protection of human rights;

70. considers that moderate progress has been made in the area of regional policy and the coordination of structural instruments. In view of IPA accreditation, management and control systems need to be further strengthened to minimise risks of delays and decommitments. In addition, programming capacity needs to be improved, particularly as regards the preparation of a solid project pipeline;

71. takes note of Albania's plans to downsize its number of local government units and reiterates the need to strike a balance between administrative efficiency and democratic legitimacy as well as accessibility for the citizens in this process;

72. welcomes the adoption of the Law on Urban Planning in April 2013 as a step towards building effective and contemporary local self-government and regrets that the implementation of this law remains very slow;

73. regrets that, despite ongoing administrative improvements, local authorities still have highly limited financial and administrative resources for the development of infrastructure and services and that their revenues have fallen by 21%;

74. also regrets that their human resource management and financial control systems remain weak and considers that this has hindered their effectiveness and has limited the role of local authorities and their associations in strengthening coordination between local and central government. It therefore calls for closer coordination between central and local government and for the strengthened role of local authority associations;

75. points out the serious gaps which remain in terms of monitoring corruption, including at local level, and calls for the appointment of an anti-corruption coordinator with a strong mandate to carry out an assessment of the overall anti-corruption set-up;

76. welcomes the existence of a National Strategy on improving living conditions for Roma people and the corresponding National Action Plan, and underlines the need to implement the respective commitments;

Bosnia and Herzegovina

77. regrets that Bosnia and Herzegovina has made very limited progress towards improving the functionality and efficiency of all levels of government. the Committee is concerned that the EU integration process has stalled and believes that substantial efforts are still needed to meet the conditions required for a credible membership application;

78. underlines that Bosnia and Herzegovina's authorities have also made no progress towards establishing the necessary structure for the decentralised management of EU funds, which puts the EU’s financial assistance (IPA) at risk and has already led to a loss in such funds for Bosnia and Herzegovina this year;

79. underlines that there is a lack of clarity regarding the division of competences between the entities, cantons and municipalities, with a relatively low level of financial autonomy at municipal level;

80. points out that the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is impacting negatively upon the country's ability to speak with one voice on EU matters. It considers that it is important to strengthen the role of the Directorate for European Integration, to coordinate EU matters among all levels of authorities or via another similar mechanism. The Committee notes that the Commission has been forced to postpone further discussions on IPA II in the absence of such a mechanism;

81. regrets that the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has made only very limited progress towards adopting EU-related legislation. Political disagreements have continued to have a negative impact on the functioning of the Assembly;

82. urges that account be taken of the outcomes of the expert working group set up with support from the US and the EU, which drafted recommendations on the reform of the Federation’s Constitution aimed at addressing the country's costly and complex governance structures where there is a certain overlap in competences between the Federation, the cantons and the municipalities. It welcomes the fact that this expert working group based its recommendations on a broad participatory consultation process with all levels of government, including the local level through the involvement of the municipalities and cities of the Federation, as well as civil society;

83. further emphasises the need to strengthen the protection of human rights, including the implementation of already adopted target strategies;

84. calls on all entities of the Federation to maintain constructive political dialogue among themselves and the federal authorities;

Kosovo (1)

85. welcomes the decision of the Council to commence negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo;

86. welcomes the decision of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) to amend its statute to allow Kosovo to become a participant in its own right. The formula for Kosovo's participation in the RCC represents a good basis for Kosovo to increase and extend its participation in other regional fora;

87. praises the active and constructive participation of Kosovo and Serbia in an EU-facilitated dialogue and notes the importance of peaceful and comprehensive settlement of disputes between Serbia and Kosovo for the development of the entire region;

88. points out that although the fundamental structures for governance at both central and local levels are in place, the municipal level remains weak and needs both adequate financing and administrative capacities. It calls for further efforts to improve the implementation of legislation, accountability and transparency of government, including at municipal level, and for support to be given to local authorities to continue the process of decentralisation;

89. welcomes the fact that local governments have improved their capacity, including in addressing returns and reintegration of refugees and displaced persons, regarding the transparency of management and budget information, and in terms of reporting on municipal decision-making;

90. reiterates the importance of transparent and effective administration and calls on the Kosovo government to pay high attention to the Commission recommendations on the need to tackle organised crime and corruption as well as to build adequate judicial and public administrative systems;

91. points out that cooperation between civil society organisations and government institutions in Kosovo continues to be predominately ad hoc and should be improved, particularly as regards defining and implementing public policies;

92. reiterates the need to further promote the rule of law, which is a cornerstone of the Stabilisation and Association Process. In this context, the continuation of the Structured Dialogue on the Rule of Law is highly welcomed as it continues to support and guide Kosovo in this area, including in the discussions on the future of EULEX, the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo;

93. proposes further negotiations on a special local self-government status for the Serbian dominated regional enclave around Mitrovica in northern Kosovo.

Brussels, 2 April 2014 The President of the Committee of the Regions Ramón Luis VALCÁRCEL SISO

(1) This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

(2) See Commission communication — Enlargement strategy and main challenges 2013-2014 COM(2013) 700 final.

(3) Declaration by the provincial assembly of Vojvodina on the Protection of Constitutional and Legal Rights of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina of 21 May 2013.

(4) Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Recommendation 301 (2011), Local and regional democracy in Turkey, Strasbourg, 22—24 March 2011.

(5) idem.

(6) The elections took place in June 2013. See European Parliament progress report on Albania, presented by Rapporteur: Nikola Vuljanić (GUE/NGL), AFET meeting, 25/11/2013.

(7) See OSCE and Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe monitoring mission report as of 08/05/2011, http://www.osce.org/odihr/77446.