Record of Proceedings - Plenary Session Assises 2013

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Plenary session

Summary

The plenary session of the third conference on decentralised cooperation was held on Wednesday 10April 2013. Its participants included the rapporteurs of the five round tables as well as JosephCostello, Minister of State for Trade and Development; Andris Piebalgs, EU Commissioner for Development; and Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso and Mercedes Bresso, the president and vice-president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

In her introductory statement, Mercedes Bresso highlighted the multilevel nature of development cooperation, especially in the area of fighting poverty, since without this approach, with its territorial dimension, it was difficult to respond to the specific needs of the people concerned. She also stressed the need to incorporate this aspect and the operational methods it required into a new European development strategy with a view to increasing its real impact.

With regard to the proposals in the new EU approach to development cooperation, she recalled that it was based on the principles of concentration and differentiation but was also based on the existing national development strategies. Ms Bresso also pointed out that the CoR understood the advantages of this new approach very clearly. The CoR did not exclude the synergies and shared interests of LRAs and national governments; on the contrary, it called for territorial specificities to be taken into account in order to respond better to the problems.

Mercedes Bresso went on to give a quick presentation of the round tables held during the third conference on decentralised cooperation.

The first round table on cross-border and trans-regional cooperation revealed possible synergies between LRAs with shared interests. On the one hand, work carried out by international institutions revealed growing inequalities between regions in the same country and, on the other hand, that more egalitarian societies promoted steady and sustainable growth. In this context, the EU - and its LRAs in particular - through its experience with cohesion policy, had a strong asset and almost unique expertise. Ms Bresso wanted the EU to give more prominence to this dimension and to use it in its development policy, mainly through decentralised cooperation.

In presenting the third round table on decentralisation and the fourth round table on building the capacity of LRAs, Ms Bresso pointed out that incorporating regional specificities into development policy also meant that local and regional stakeholders and, in particular, the territorial authorities had to be able to design, define and implement policies. It was one of the main reasons for ensuring proper decentralisation, which included reinforcing their technical, human and financial resources wherever necessary.

Finally, she pointed out that the international post-2015 development agenda covered during the second round table and the role of LRAs in development, discussed during the fifth round table, were to be the subjects of a CoR resolution on the post-2015 agenda and an opinion drafted by Mr Janssen on the second theme. Plans to adopt these two documents were a sign of the interest and importance that development and decentralised cooperation had for the CoR, being among its political priorities.

Mercedes Bresso concluded her speech by emphasising that an adequate response to the major global challenges of the day, such as the steady growth in the global population, the fight against climate change, conflict prevention and management, international terrorism, water resource management and energy security, would not be found unless the parameters of the developing world and the territorial dimension of strategies were taken into consideration.

Speaking on behalf of the Irish presidency of the Council, Joseph Costello recalled that since the Treaty of Lisbon, decisions had to be taken on the basis of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, and that in line with this approach, Ireland, his country, worked side by side with LRAs to deliver a development policy aimed at eradicating poverty. He also added that the CoR and the LRAs had to be key partners in the area of development cooperation.

He said that LRAs, which already worked extensively in partnership with civil society and the private sector, were attempting to respond to the public's basic needs and to promote social cohesion, while also supporting sustainable growth, primarily in the field of development cooperation.

Furthermore, with regard to the major challenges of our times, Mr Costello highlighted a profound change in the global economy, namely a "global rebalancing", led by developing countries, which were experiencing unprecedented growth. This change was creating new challenges and opportunities by strengthening the role of the world's emerging economies.

At least partly in this connection, Mr Costello pointed out that progress had been made towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), e.g. poverty reduction, access to potable water and primary education. This was the case, for instance, with regard to poverty reduction and access to potable water. There nevertheless remained other challenges such as urban poverty.

Mr Costello considered LRA involvement in these issues and problems to be crucial because LRAs allowed the partners - donors, civil society organisations, parliaments, local bodies and the private sector - to work in a more inclusive, coordinated and cooperative approach with the populations concerned. He described them as the vital link between central governments and citizens.

Mr Costello stressed that, to this end, it was important to recognise the growing role of LRAs, not only as links between governments and citizens, but also as privileged interlocutors with the EU, especially with regard to sharing experience. He emphasised that good practices in the area of cooperation should not remain unknown and isolated and that the LRAs were in the best position to support this type of knowledge transfer and to implement new development "standards".

The statements of Ms Bresso and Mr Costello were followed by a presentation on the key discussion themes of each of the five round tables, given by their respective rapporteurs.

Abdoulaye Sene, member of the Regional Council of Fatick in Senegal and president of the Global Forum, gave a two-part presentation on the first round table.

During the first part, he mentioned that this round table focused on understanding how transnational and inter-regional cooperation and, more generally, decentralised cooperation, could support and strengthen regional integration processes on the different continents. Its speakers had also tried to determine how this type of cooperation could be strengthened and consolidated and how recommendations could be made to improve efficiency in the interests of regional integration.

He stressed that globally this type of cooperation was central to the EU's policies on regional integration, openness to the world and its neighbourhood. Its themes, modalities and stakeholders were diverse, very dynamic and a function of the geography and history of the territories concerned.

He explained that whereas in Europe, transnational cooperation was highly developed and backed by a lot of experience and many instruments (institutional, financial), in Africa, it was mainly fragmented because States were so politically and economically weakened. Despite this, he pointed out that this type of cooperation had already had very promising results in the area of regional integration and was an urgent necessity on all continents. Similarly, in Asia and in Vietnam in particular, the outcomes of transnational cooperation in recent years had been very encouraging. Transnational networks were being set up in Central America, especially for the environment and the management of public services.

Mr Sene also indicated that if transnational cooperation was the product of the initiatives of a variety of public or private stakeholders, which sometimes formed networks, it was important to mention the important role of NGOs in this area. He also reiterated that LRAs did not need to have the same legal status in order to develop this type of cooperation.

Transnational cooperation, often considered as a tool against separatism and border conflicts, also contributed to rediscovering and consolidating forgotten or degenerating local knowledge. It covered a wide range of areas that contributed globally to improving the quality of life on both sides of the border: security and peace, nutrition and waste management, health, education and training, farming sectors, tourism, etc.

In the second part, Mr Sene went on to take stock of the difficulties created by the crisis, especially in Europe. These difficulties should lead the EU and its LRAs to review their decentralised cooperation strategies. He therefore recommended that these strategies should be more inclusive, more rooted in the regions, more sustainable and, above all, that they should be supported by mechanisms for good governance and transparency.

Other recommendations emerged during the discussions, namely with regard to rationalising budgets allocated by the EU. Mr Sene also suggested that the EU should continue to promote the establishment of networks to enable LRAs to pool their resources and broaden the scope of their projects. He also suggested that the EU should strengthen its instruments for supporting LRAs and their decentralised cooperation and also share more of its experience and expertise if it wanted to assume its role as a global Europe. Finally, he called for the establishment of a proper mechanism for monitoring and assessing proposals in order to improve the results of decentralised cooperation.

The second round table concerned ongoing discussions on development, namely in the Rio+20 framework, which were due to establish sustainable development goals and new post-2015 United Nations MDGs, and in the framework of the Commission's Communication entitled "A decent life for all".

Hubert-Julien Laferrière, the rapporteur for the second round table,wanted to start by drawing lessons from the current MDGs. He argued that the MDGs had had a unifying effect because they had mobilised substantial resources, especially in the areas of health and education and had become the LRAs' reference framework for decentralised cooperation. Nevertheless, despite progress in this respect, he drew attention to certain negative points and shortcomings. He regretted the top-down approach which had predominated during the development of the MDGs, which were not considered to be very inclusive by the various stakeholders, namely citizens and the various levels of government. He also criticised the indicators, which undoubtedly measured progress at the national level but did not give sufficient consideration to territorial disparities.

Setting out the key aspects that needed to be included in the future post-2015 development agenda, Hubert-Julien Laferrière stated that the round table's discussions had made it possible to identify points that needed to be included in the future development goals, i.e. (i) the new climate change challenges, (ii) the management of natural and energy resources, (iii) rampant urbanisation, and (iv) conflict management.

He also advocated creating a more flexible universal development framework, capable of adapting to these new challenges and of clearly defining the responsibilities of each stakeholder, while also using qualitative indicators that took better account of public welfare. Finally, they also needed to address cross-cutting and multi-sectoral issues such as female participation in social and economic life, local governance and even the environment.

Mr Laferrière set out the approach advocated by the round table's participants, i.e. to establish a more inclusive process, involving all stakeholders, i.e. all levels of governments and citizens. He also mentioned that it also seemed urgent for LRAs to coordinate more and to speak with a single voice through international networks such as the UCLG, at the global level, or through platforms, at the EU level. In this context, he also stressed the role played by the CoR in inclusive policies. Finally, he mentioned the round table's call for the decentralisation process to be stepped up, with a real devolution of human and financial skills, coupled with building the LRAs' capacity to apply their new responsibilities.

In conclusion, Mr Laferrière pointed out that decentralised cooperation was a good way to share and disseminate good practices, and that it had become an indispensable tool for implementing the future development goals. Indeed, the multilevel and multi-stakeholder approach ensured the proper organisation and global coordination of all key stakeholders during a crisis. In order to achieve this, he suggested that each State should identify a precise goal to be achieved in order to subsequently adopt a genuinely inclusive policy in coordination and consultation with the LRAs and the public.

In presenting the third round table, Dorin Chirtoaca, its rapporteur, explained that it had focused on answering three key questions about the role of decentralised cooperation in decentralisation in partner countries. The participants therefore began by discussing the role of LRAs in defining and implementing decentralisation. They discussed the advantages of decentralised cooperation in this process before addressing the type of cooperation which had to be or should be adopted in order to contribute to deepening decentralisation.

Starting from the premise that decentralisation was a slow and unequal process, which varied from country to country, and was sometimes ineffective, i.e. it did not translate into fact, Mr Chirtoaca recalled that a single approach to decentralisation, originating mainly from northern countries, could not be applied in all countries. He believed that this was another reason why LRAs had to be considered as legitimate stakeholders in decentralisation.

The rapporteur also mentioned that all the speakers believed that power was concentrated in the central State, which still found it very difficult to delegate to the local authorities, which was why they had intervened in support of Boubacar Bah's statement to the effect that, in line with the subsidiarity principle, "power must come back home". Everyone was in agreement that the "home" of power was the local level, the first level of social organisation, and that decentralisation reinforced the legitimacy of local democracy because it allowed decisions to be taken as close to the citizens as possible. In this context, Mr Chirtoaca emphasised that the participating LRA representatives were extremely concerned that the ongoing economic crisis was often used to excuse an emerging trend in some countries to revert back to centralisation. It was pointed out that LRA associations or networks could help to fight this tendency by contributing to making LRAs stronger in order to help the decentralisation process.

In this context, decentralised cooperation should be considered as a real and increasingly powerful tool to help LRAs to participate in the process. Many advantages were identified during the round table, in particular, the advantage that through decentralised cooperation, LRAs were no longer just beneficiaries of aid but also active participants and initiators. Decentralised cooperation was perceived by participants as a pacifist action carried out for the sole purpose of economic development.

Mr Chirtoaca also confirmed that the decentralised approach to development was a good way to distribute aid among all levels of governance, provided they were efficiently organised. This was why he had stressed that LRAs had to be more involved in defining EU cooperation programmes. This was all the more necessary since he believed that decentralised cooperation projects were often "policy laboratories", which needed to be incorporated in general development policies in partner countries in order to increase their impact and efficiency.

The fourth round table, which had strong links with the third round table and largely covered aspects that were complementary to it, included presentations and discussions about the need and the means to build LRA capacity. According to Hani Abdalmasih Al-Hayek, it also made it possible to highlight the added value of decentralised cooperation in development policy.

Hani Abdalmasih Al-Hayek began his statement by focusing on the idea that if decentralisation was to succeed in the partner countries, it was imperative for LRAs to able to play an active, if not leading, role. He stated that one way to achieve this recommended during the round tables was for the national level to pass on its expertise and know-how under the best possible circumstances to the infra-national level. Thus programmes and projects could be implemented in the best and most efficient way. It was with this in mind that the rapporteur pointed out that the CoR - alongside LRA representatives in the EU and the partner countries - had supported, within the framework of ARLEM, the importance of building the capacity of LRAs in the Mediterranean, especially with respect to management and public policy.

The rapporteur of the round table also made a point of emphasising that increasing responsibilities was not enough for successful decentralisation. Financial and human resources, especially in developing countries, were crucial to the LRAs' real ability to take more autonomous action.