EU and Eastern Partnership cities and regions call for capacity-building tools
Members of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) have welcomed an invitation by the EU and governments of the six Eastern Partnership countries to attend a ministerial meeting on 23 May, praising it as recognition of the importance of local and regional government to economic and political development in Europe's neighbourhood.
The Conference was established in 2011 by the European Committee of the Regions together with local and regional authorities in the six member states of the EU's Eastern Partnership - Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - to support the EU's efforts to improve relations between EU and countries in eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Markku Markkula (FI/EPP), the President of the European Committee of the Regions and co-chairman of CORLEAP, said that CORLEAP would urge the EU and governments of the six Eastern Partnership countries to give greater support to forms of cooperation such as twinning initiatives, capacity-building at the local and regional level, and confidence-building measures. He cited cross-border cooperation between Hungary and Ukraine facilitated by the EU as an example to be emulated.
"Doing more is a matter of will, and it is also a matter of resources," President Markkula said at a meeting of CORLEAP's executive body held in Brussels on 12 May.
In 2015, CORLEAP contributed to the EU's review of its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which resulted in the EU enhancing the role given to local and regional authorities in the EU's efforts to forge partnerships in its eastern and southern neighbourhood.
"Getting the message across that local and regional authorities should be involved was difficult enough," said Anar Ibrahimov, the co-chairman of CORLEAP. "It will be even more challenging to ensure that countries in the Eastern Partnership and in the EU feel the benefits of the ENP. The best way to achieve this is by strengthening cooperation in specific areas, where concrete, visible results can be achieved."
Mr Ibrahimov is Chairman of the Committee of Human Rights, International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations of the Ali Majilis (Parliament) of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan.
CORLEAP will be represented at the Eastern Partnership Foreign Affairs Ministerial meeting on 23 May by Mr Ibrahimov and by Karl-Heinz Lambertz, First Vice-President of the CoR.
The meeting of CORLEAP's executive body followed a conference on fiscal decentralisation organised by CORLEAP, in which local politicians and officials highlighted ways in which local and regional authorities are trying to provide better services. Ukraine's early efforts at decentralisation were outlined by Oleksandr Slobozhan, first deputy executive director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, while Dariusz Wróbel (PL/European Alliance), Mayor of Opole Lubelskie, spoke about Poland's widely respected transformation of its once highly centralised state. Per Bødker Andersen (DK/PES) stressed that Denmark's experience showed that the process of finding the appropriate level of decentralisation sometimes involves reducing the number of local authorities. His point was underscored by Daniel Popescu, the Council of Europe's special adviser to the government of Ukraine on decentralisation, who said that there is a trend across Europe towards the amalgamation of local authorities.
CORLEAP's annual plenary session will be held in Brussels on 30 September. The agenda will include the adoption of a report by the Mayor of Gdańsk - Paweł Adamowicz (PL/EPP) - on the "development of active citizenship as a way to strengthen local democracy in the Eastern Partnership countries".
Contact:
Andrew Gardner
Tel. +32 (0)473 843 981
Background information:
Fiscal decentralisation: The conditions needed to make it a success - presentations
Fiscal decentralisation in Denmark, by Per Bødker Andersen, Deputy Mayor of Kolding and member of the CoR (DK/PES)
Fiscal decentralisation in Ukraine, by Oleksandr Slobozhan, First Deputy Executive Director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities
Political decentralisation in Ukraine, by Sergiy Chernov, President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Local and Governments and head of Kharkiv Regional Council
Presentation of the HiQSTEP project (High Quality Studies for the Eastern Partnership), by Przemysław Musiałkowski
Study of "Public Administration Reform at the Local and Regional Level in the Eastern Partnership Countries: Developments Since 2012 in the Field of Decentralisation", by Vyacheslav Tolkovanov
Photos:
CORLEAP conference on "Fiscal decentralisation: The conditions needed to make it a success"
CORLEAP Bureau meeting
More on CORLEAP:
CORLEAP e-Newsletter