Brussels, 02/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The municipalities and regions of Europe are calling for a Europe of three dimensions, 3D for decentralisation, development amd democracy, adopted at the General assembly in Cadiz at the end of September (see EUROPE 106999).
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) wants to give new meaning to the European project. Europe is “marked by numerous summits during which the European Union gives off an impression of hesitation and inability to respond to the expectations of Europeans, which has deepened the divide between Europe and the citizens”, reads the declaration of Cadiz. In order to avoid the risk of rupture within Europe and the increase in nationalist feeling, the elected members of the local authorities are calling for more focus on decentralisation for a recognition of local and regional autonomy in national and European law. “The States are tempted to move in the opposite direction, passing on their own problems to the local authorities, by recentralising certain public policies or transferring new responsibilities without providing the local and regional actors the means for effective action”, the municipalities and regions of Europe lament. They also believe that the crisis underlines “the need to design a development model that ensures our common Europe”, a sustainable and social model. But coming out of crisis also requires “local and regional development, driven by the mobilisation of all local and regional actors, in coherence with the citizens' needs”.
The Council also wishes to reaffirm certain fundamental European principles, such as democracy, firmly believing that “an intergovernmental approach alone cannot suffice”. The local authorities therefore call for a “a greater political integration of the European Union, inextricably linked with solidarity and applying a mutualisation of elements of national sovereignty”. There must be strong, effective and democratic governance in which all institutions fully and actively play their role, the declaration concludes. (MD/transl.fl)