CIVEX outlines vision on justice & home affairs in the EU and reforms in Ukraine
Members of the Committee of the Region's commission for citizenship, governance, institutional and external affairs (CIVEX) have called for future EU policy in justice and home affairs to strongly focus on fundamental rights and ensure greater solidarity on migration and asylum. They also held a debate to assess the repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis on local and regional authorities, and discuss the support that the CoR and CORLEAP can offer to advance towards decentralisation and local democracy.
Aiming to address suggestions to the other institutions on the directions EU policies on justice and home affairs should take after the Stockholm programme comes to an end, CIVEX members yesterday endorsed the draft opinion by Lotta Håkansson-Harju (SE/PES), Member of Järfälla Municipal Council, which places a strong emphasis on fundamental rights. "All future EU proposals in the field of justice and home affairs must be based upon, and respect, fundamental rights. Public authorities at all levels must be actively committed to protecting and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms for all. Local and regional authorities, however, have an additional duty to raise awareness in this respect because they are so close to the people of Europe", said Ms Håkansson-Harju.
In order to strengthen the crosscutting nature of fundamental rights, CIVEX members called for the EU Commissioners responsible for justice and home affairs to ensure coordination with all directorates-general of the European Commission. Regarding the sensitive issue of solidarity and responsibility-sharing on migration and asylum, the draft opinion argues that reception of refugees and asylum-seekers is unevenly spread both within and between Member States, and that some local and regional authorities take a "far greater share of the responsibility by processing a large proportion of new arrivals". It therefore urges all levels of government to share responsibility for their reception and integration and to develop mechanisms for redistributing them between Member States, regions and local authorities.
The debate on the opinion was followed by a structured dialogue between the CIVEX members, the European Commission and representative associations of local and regional authorities, such as EUROCITIES, CEMR and EFUS. On behalf of the European Commission, Ioan-Dragos Tudorache, acting Director in DG Home, was pleased to see " convergence between what the CoR and associations see as guiding principles for future cooperation in justice and home affairs, and the approach followed by the European Commission", especially as regards the focus on human rights and the need for enhanced solidarity between Member States.
The second part of the meeting offered CIVEX members the opportunity to debate the situation in Ukraine and the aftermath of "Euromaidan" with representatives of the EU institutions, members of the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) and the civil society from the Eastern partners. Recalling the participation of the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Groysman at last week's CoR plenary session, Serguey Saienko from the EU Mission of Ukraine thanked the CoR and CORLEAP for their continuous support and stressed that the government initiated reforms on local democracy and fiscal decentralisation with the aim of "making Ukraine and its regions stronger". Referring to the Russian propaganda, MEP Ana Gomes (PT/S&D) emphasised that "contrary to what Russia claimed, there was no " coup d'Etat" in Ukraine but an extraordinary popular uprising urging for the rule of law and combatting corruption".
Representing CORLEAP, Emin Yeritsyan, President of the Union of Communities of Armenia, said that the "Revolution in Ukraine brought down the top of the iceberg of a totalitarian state but the real revolution is still ahead: to reform through decentralisation and building local democracy". In this regard, Mr Yeritsyan underlined the "unique role" that CORLEAP can have in this process, especially by promoting public administration reform, fiscal decentralisation and territorial cooperation. Speaking on behalf of civil society organisations in Ukraine, Volodymyr Kuprii from CCC Creative Centre, was eager to recall "two very serious issues which are extremely controversial in Ukraine: decentralisation and federalisation", adding that the issue of decentralisation was raised long before Maidan's political developments by civil society organisations, as opposed to the more recent federalisation discourse which "originated from outside of Ukraine and which is not shared by the Ukrainian people". Ivan Voleš, member of the Economic and Social Committee reiterated the proposal that the CoR and the EESC cooperate in view of taking initiatives on the ground designed to promote European values, dialogue and a better understanding of the Association Agreement among local communities, civil society and local and regional authorities.
Committee of the Regions' CIVEX commission
The CIVEX commission is responsible for issues including justice and home affairs, fundamental rights, smart regulation and the reduction of administrative burdens, citizenship and broader institutional issues such as governance and devolution. It also deals with the EU's external dimension, focusing on neighbourhood policy, enlargement and decentralised cooperation for development. It brings together 111 regional and local elected representatives from the 28 EU Member States and is chaired by António Costa (PT/PSE), Mayor of Lisbon.