Copenhagen, 02/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - How do local and regional governments in Europe organise themselves and what reforms are they planning or putting in place to raise the challenges of globalisation and meet the expectations of the population? Such questions were the focus of the Copenhagen seminar organised by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the local authorities of Denmark and the Danish Regions, on 1 October, on the theme: ““Local and regional government: changes in structures, competences and finances”. The seminar provided an opportunity for reflection and debate on various national reform schemes, methods set in place and procedures likely to be transferred from one country to the next.
Western Europe is currently setting in place a process of decentralisation and transfer of authority from the central State to the regions and municipalities, explained Helen Hermenier, who works for Dexia as a specialist in geopolitics. Territorial readjustment, the aim of which is to reach the “perfect size”, would reconcile economic efficiency and democratic effectiveness. In other words, municipalities must reach a sufficient size to have adequate financial resources in order to be able to set effective public services in place while remaining close to the citizens and the specific needs of citizens. Some countries try to merge municipalities, allowing them to expand and to acquire new competences (Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania and Greece). Only a few countries of Central and Eastern Europe take quite a different direction and split their territory up into several small municipalities, to reach a certain level of local democracy that was lacking under Communist regimes. This, in particular, is the case of the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania. Finally, other countries choose inter-municipal cooperation, allowing municipalities to keep their own structure while resolving the problems relating to their lack of size. This is the case of France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. “It is difficult to imagine a single European model” that is ideally applicable to all countries, given the fact that each country has a different historical, political and geographical background, Ms Hermenier concluded.
Municipalities in Denmark and Finland are not free to act as they please. They lose precious time carrying out the formalities required by the central government, deplored Kari Prättälä and Peter Gorm Hansen, member of the Finnish association of local and regulatory authorities and CEO of the local Danish government respectively, during the first panel devoted to reform in Northern Europe. Basing his argument on the Danish example - where the authorities have begun new reform of the local authorities since 1 January 2007 - Mr Gorm Hansen deplored the strong surveillance conducted by central government on local actors and the lack of concern shown about the democratic role of regional and local councillors, their work on the ground and with the population. “If we spend too much time on structures, it will lead to disaster,” he warned. In the second Panel, an interesting comparative study highlighted the reforms carried out by the UK and France. With equal population density, France has more municipalities (38,683) than any other European country, while the UK has only 434. The UK, a unitary state like France, has taken on characteristics of a more federal state since the implementation of a decentralisation programme begun in 1997 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. France's “intercommunales” suffer from a direct democracy deficit (President Sarkozy is considering wide-ranging administrative reform to bring better management from local authorities, Olivier Audibert-Troin, President of the Urban Community of Dracénie); with its “mega-municipalities”, the UK is trying to remedy the deficits related to too large municipalities by constantly restructuring, said Mr Wollmann (Humboldt University, Berlin). The last Panel highlighted some attempts at reform in states with a quasi-federal structure. Belgium set out its reform of the police, Germany the new limits placed on municipalities and Spain the process of transferring responsibilities towards local administrations. It is a system which works well even though the transfer of responsibility has not been accompanied by a transfer of financial means, commented Pilar Sansó Fuster of the Majorca Council.
“This debate is only a start and not a response,” noted Jeremy Smith Secretary General of the CEMR, anticipating discussions that will take place at the General Meeting of the CEMR scheduled for Malmö in April 2009. The plan would remain centred on the “democracy-identity-efficiency” triangle, the corner stones of local government, Smith said. At European level, while he welcomed “good practice” in many European Commission DGs, Smith was much more critical of the rules on public contracts. As a supporter of quality local and regional public services, the CEMR is against compulsory rules imposed by the EU on public procurement which cut the local level out of the decision making process. (I.L./transl.jl/rt)