Innsbruck, 15/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - Local and regional public services were at the centre of debate at the 23rd General Assembly of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) in Innsbruck, with particular attention paid to how these services would have to adapt to demographic changes and access for all, to the fact that these services have to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable and to difficulties linked to funding.
Speaking about public services having to adapt to demographic changes, CEMR Secretary General Jeremy Smith, after a workshop given over to this issue, highlighted the need for an integrated overall approach. “It's not just about old people, it's about young families and guaranteeing a better work-family life balance,” he said. “The European social model,” he said, “can guarantee minimum standards for all citizens, but there is no common model in Europe on how these services are provided at national, regional and local levels”. The needs of the most vulnerable in particular must be met and “solidarity must not disappear with globalisation,” said Mr Smith. The workshop of the funding of public services demonstrated principally that it is very difficult to ensure funding in the face of people's growing expectations.
Public service funding: for sustainable municipalities and towns - role of EIB - Denmark, the ideal position? - Michel Delebarre (CoR) and Walter Zimper (CEMR): what counts for territorial authorities, is legal security
How are public services to be funded? The CEMR invited European banking and financial experts to discuss this question. Brian Field, an economist specialising in urban issues for the European Investment Bank (EIB) pointed out that the EIB provides loans to support this sector and improve existing structures. He said in effect that the EIB's concept was of a sustainable municipality or the sustainability of towns. The EIB also supported urban rehabilitation, neighbourhood and improvement projects for rundown and neglected districts and parts of towns (even in wealthy towns), he said, adding that the EIB was giving more and more funding to combat poverty in towns, to create new jobs and to help minorities. Andrzej Porawski, the director of the Association of Polish Towns, said, for my country “the Danish situation remains a dream, a miracle even!” Why, he asked, was Denmark the ideal situation? He answered, “Because resource management is more efficient and effective, because of the cooperation with the private sector”. Speaking for Philippe Valletoux, Deputy Chairman of Dexia-Crédit Local, Dominique Hoorens indicated that the demand for public services was becoming greater and greater everywhere, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and, “This is expensive”.
Peter Gorm Hansen, the representative of local authorities in Denmark, said that in his country, municipalities came under severe financial pressure. “But this isn't just in Denmark,” he said, adding that the ageing population put pressure on the funding of public services. The Vice-President of the French Association of CEMR (AFCCRE) Philippe Laurent acknowledged too that citizens were demanding “more quality public services, under democratic control and available to all”. CEMR Vice-President Walter Zimper said that “in order to provide the services expected by their citizens, what local and regional public authorities needed above all was legal security. The status quo is not acceptable”. “If public services are acknowledged as being an essential requirement of local authorities, then adequate funding must be made available,” he insisted, setting out a proposal from the Austrian delegation on the introduction of compulsory care insurance. The President of the Committee of the Regions Michel Delebarre also said that legal security was the most important thing for territorial authorities, as suppliers of services of general interest. Without clear legislation, it would be up to the Court of Justice to fill in all the holes on the basis of the existing treaties, case by case, he said.