Newsletter – n°24 – October 2013

Headlines

PLATFORMA welcomes the vote of the European Parliament (EP) on Europe’s engagement with local and regional authorities in partner countries, carried forward by the member of the EP and Vice-Chair of the EP’s DEVE Committee, Corina Cretu. PLATFORMA is also pleased to have been able to contribute to the report and with the exchanges that took place with Ms Cretu and her team on this matter.

Six years after the adoption of Pierre Schapira’s report, which marked the recognition of local and regional governments’ role in development by the EP,  this report addresses the complexity of the mission of local and regional authorities, who greatly influence the democratic, economic and social life of citizens at a level closest to them, while emphasising the elements that make up a voluntary policy promoting their development: support for political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation, for capacity building and for governing in partnership, amongst other things.

Following the publication of the Communication “Empowering Local Authorities in partner countries for enhanced governance and more effective development outcomes” and the adoption of the Council’s conclusions pertaining to this communication, the vote of the members of the EP complements the existing body of legislation which will steer European Union (EU) support towards local and regional authorities. At a time when the central governments and the EU are still defining the focal sectors, we strongly hope that support for democracy and local governance shall consist of more than just empty rhetoric in the next programming.

Lastly, in spite of our overall satisfaction with this new approach, we regret that the Communication, the Council’s conclusions and the EP report did not include explicit and systematic references to all the subnational levels of government, in particular the regions.

Link to the report.