London Assembly 11Am Wednesday 9 July 2003
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Minutes: London Assembly 11am Wednesday 9 July 2003 Present Sally Hamwee (Chair) Toby Harris Samantha Heath (Deputy Chair) Meg Hillier Tony Arbour Elizabeth Howlett Jennette Arnold Diana Johnson Richard Barnes Darren Johnson John Biggs Jenny Jones Angie Bray Noel Lynch Brian Coleman Bob Neill Len Duvall Eric Ollerenshaw Roger Evans Andrew Pelling Lynne Featherstone Valerie Shawcross Nicky Gavron Graham Tope Mike Tuffrey 1. APOLOGIES (Item 1) There were none 2. DECLARATION OF INTERESTS (Item 2) A list of the membership of Functional Bodies and London Boroughs was tabled and is attached at Appendix A to these minutes. City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA Enquiries: 020 7983 4100 minicom: 020 7983 4458 www.london.gov.uk 3. INTRODUCTION BY THE CHAIR (Item 3) Welcome to an important day, and a very warm welcome to friends from the whole of London, colleagues from the London Assembly and the London boroughs, as well as the whole of the GLA, and from the German community. In particular we welcome Walter Momper on what, I think, is a significant day. The Mayor has a partnership agreement with the Mayor of Berlin, and today we mark the start of partnership joint working with the House of Representatives. We will now ask Walter Momper, President, to speak to us. 4. WALTER MOMPER, PRESIDENT OF THE BERLIN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Chair, dear Sally, Mayor Livingstone, dear Ken, Members of the House, colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Excellencies, it is a great honour and pleasure for me to speak here. Thank you very much for your warm me. I hope that I can express the great affection and feelings of friendship that unite the British and German people, and the people of Berlin and London. I hope that my visit will contribute to a further development of the city partnerships. Sally already talked about the close partnership that the Mayors of both cities have, and I think that now is the time to expand the connection to the parliamentary assemblies of both cities and, of course, for the exchange of the experience that we have. Firstly, I send you the greetings and the best wishes of the House of Representatives – the Abgeordnetenhaus – of Berlin. I really can see that Berlin’s city partnership with London is very important for us, for all five parliamentary groups that we have in the Abgeordnetenhaus, a little more than you have. We have the Greens, the Reds, those who call themselves the Blacks, the Yellows, and the Blues. We also have the very Red ones. So you see the colours are the same. I believe that this is a good starting point for further contacts between our cities, and I also think that we have reason to be optimistic in this respect. Ladies and gentlemen, our friendship with Great Britain is, for us, something which is not just politically important, but rather it comes from the heart. We in Berlin have not forgotten that Great Britain was one of our protecting powers in the past during the era of the Cold War, and of course what we owe to the British people and, of course, to the British armed forces who have done their constant duty in the Berlin garrison. Let me look back for a moment at the consequences of the Second World War. Germany, Europe and Berlin were divided after 1945; the western half of the city was under the control of the US, Britain and France, whereas the eastern part of the city was under control of the Soviet Union. West Berlin’s existence and freedom were threatened for decades by the Soviet Union and the former GDR, or East Germany. The three western allied powers defended the western part of the city and defended its freedom. Remember that in 1948-1949, Great Britain played an important part during the time of the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Airlift. Day and night, American and British airplanes came to our city and brought to the city what was needed there to live and to survive. The German-British friendship grew in Berlin during that time, and it became stronger and stronger in the following decades in 2 - - times of threat, when in 1958 the Kruschev ultimatum really was a great danger for the city, and for world peace, of course. The Wall was erected in 1961, and the friendship between Germany and Great Britain was very much alive when the wall fell in November 1989. Germany was reunited in October 1990, when the allied troops were withdrawn from Germany and from Berlin. Changes in world politics in the 1980s, the end of confrontation between East and West, and globalisation, created new international constellations to which we all have to adjust - you in London, we in Berlin; you in Britain, we in Germany. Countries that once regarded themselves as enemies were now working together, and especially the countries of Eastern Europe have become partners since 1990. It was this development that also made German reunification possible. We know that many people in Great Britain, in view of the past, were sceptical over the idea of a reunited Germany. Nevertheless, Great Britain consented to German reunification. For Germans, especially for those in Berlin, German reunification led to radical changes in life, changes for which people were unprepared. 40 years of separation within one people has resulted in differences in mentality in east and west and we still have enormous problems overcoming these differences in mentality. Reservation and suspicion have to be overcome. The people in the two halves of the city have grown apart. They have different life experiences, and now have to find common ground and new common standards for their social, political, economic and daily lives. The city itself had to change as well. It became the German capital again, and the seat of the Bundestag and the Federal Government. In other words, it became the centre of political decision- making in our country. Thirteen years after German reunification we can say that a new Berlin has emerged, a Berlin as a meeting place of nations, a market place of ideas, a cultural metropolis in the middle of Europe. Today, Berlin has more to offer than ever before: a great many creative young minds, and an outstanding scientific and academic landscape, with very close ties between science and industry. Berlin is an ideal location for the dialogue between cultures. We have people from over 190 countries - although you probably have even more in this city - living together peacefully in Germany’s capital city now. It is its geographical location, historical experience and, not least, its cultural diversity, which make Berlin the city of encounters. We believe that we have historical obligations to do everything we can to make it possible for Christians, Muslims, people from all parts of the world, Jews, as well as other faiths, to live there together in peace, in Germany and especially in Berlin. Berlin is also a city of knowledge. We have a big landscape of universities, research institutions and this makes Berlin an innovative city. New medicine, communications, IT, media, all that a modern big city has, is typical for Berlin. Infrastructure and the telecommunications network meet high standards, and a great gift of German unity is that we got this money, not only from the private sector but from federal government and agencies, to renew the whole infrastructure, because it was old and rotten and did not fit the today’s needs. 3 - - Berlin is also on the way to becoming a city of service providers, a trade fair and congress city, and so on. Today, Berlin is one of the world’s most exciting cities. Thirteen years ago, on the evening of November 9th, Berliners fell into each others’ arms on the Berlin Wall when it had just come down. Today only a few pieces of the Wall can remain, and Berlin is looking forward. We have a high percentage of young people among the population - about 35% are under the age of 35 - and 1 million Berlin residents have come to the city in the last 10 years. Berlin is now located in the middle of a new, united Europe, and that is why the extension eastwards of the European Union is so important for us. It is a chance for the future, and we want to develop close cooperation with our partners in the EU and far beyond, in the west as well as the east. As in no other city, the face of Berlin has changed. It was a city of crisis, of politics and of the east- west confrontation, and now it is set to become a city of opportunity, although the city is still suffering, especially with regard to budget and financing, from the division of the past, which takes some time to overcome. It is good to know that the city of Berlin has friends all over the world, which is an investment into the future of our city. Berlin maintains partnerships with 16 capital cities and we plan to cultivate this network of friendship. We believe that it is important for people to be connected, not only on the national level but also on the municipal level. We should work together to ensure that the friendship between cities also plays an important role in our practical policy. Ladies and gentlemen, the success of city partnership also involves cooperation, and the exchange of experience, between city policy-makers. At the same time, however, we need to keep in mind differences in administrative structures and political structures.