First Assises of decentralised cooperation - Local and regional authorities meet EU

Discussions will focus on aid effectiveness, the need for energy for sustainable development and how best to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially in the area of improving health care. This event, co-organised by the CoR and the European Commission, is an important opportunity for local and regional authorities to underline how they are in a unique position to encourage co-operation networks between different local communities and regions from northern and southern countries.

Karel De Gucht, Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, stated: "The local and regional levels bring a unique perspective, knowledge and ability to act on development issues. Today's 'Town Hall' is an important opportunity for their voices to be heard as we look to them to play an increased and coordinated role in this field."

Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions, said: "We are facing immense challenges, of which the fight against poverty is unfortunately still the greatest. NGO's are achieving a great deal in this area. We should not duplicate this work but concentrate on the quality of regional and local governance of development aid in our partner countries. This is the best guarantee that multilateral, European and bilateral aid will be used efficiently."

Background:

On 8 October 2008, the European Commission published the proposal "Local Authorities: Actors for Development". This recognised that local and regional authorities bring a unique added-value to development processes. It also suggested that local authorities have a key role in mobilising different stakeholders to work together, thus generating collaborative approaches to attaining common development goals.

It foresaw 3 new objectives to be achieved under the aegis of the Committee of the Regions:

* The Atlas on Decentralised Cooperation, which would enable to know the programmes and initiatives done by European Local and Regional Authorities on development cooperation. This instrument has been presented during the 'Town Hall' event.
* A political dialogue, which will take the form of conferences and discussions among all levels of authorities. Today's event is the first one.
* A web portal, which would try to match skills and capacities with needs; allow discussion through forums; inform about European funds, and inform about country strategies. It is scheduled for mid-2010.

The European Union Council conclusions on this proposal, adopted in November 2008, recognised the increasing role and added-value of local authorities in cooperation development policy.

The Committee of the Regions' opinion, adopted in April 2009, while stressing the specific contribution of LRAs, recognises the need to harmonise cooperation activities at all levels and calls for progress on integrating LRAs into development and cooperation policies. Moreover, the document commits the CoR to take all necessary steps to organise, jointly with the European Commission, the annual conference on decentralised cooperation.

In some EU countries, such as Spain, local and regional authorities deliver already a 15% of the total official development aid. Due to their knowledge on managing services and policies very close to the citizens, these authorities can deliver forms of aid that are well suited to the needs of local communities. There are 91,000 local authorities and about 1,150 intermediate and regional authorities in Europe.


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