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 , 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. , 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. ’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

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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.

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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 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. Decision-making processes are different and not always as comparable as we think. We know of the differences between our two cities with regard to the Assemblies.

Common to both – our Chambers, the London Assembly and the Berlin House of Representatives – is the control they exercise over the executive branch, a right that is regarded everywhere as one of the most essential characteristics of democracy. One way in which the London Assembly exercises this control is by giving the Mayor results of research by experts on particular issues.

The committee of the Berlin House of Representatives that monitors the State Government has no outside expert at its disposal. The responsibility for having surveys and analysis prepared lies with the Berlin executive branch. Select Committees and Parliament examine this material from a political point of view. That is the way we do it.

These are different procedures that are based on the legal conditions in each city. Therefore, we are not able to accept your invitation to undertake joint surveys and analysis of various issues but, of course, we can compare what we know and what we have. This would have been done in accordance with your procedures, which would be contrary to our status as a joint committee.

Nevertheless we believe that both parties will still be able to benefit from an exchange of experience. We know that London has much more experience than Berlin has with regard to transportation, congestion charging, and so on. An underground, of course – a much longer tradition than we have. It would be very helpful to us to obtain material related to this field for our specialists in Berlin. In return we would like to provide you with material related to environmental protection in metropolitan areas, a field in which Germany specialists have done excellent work. We will send you this material 4 - -

as soon as possible and we can talk about it. I hope that you will consider our suggestions. We will have the opportunity today to talk more about possible cooperative fields and projects.

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to thank you for your attention and for being so patient while I promoted the city of Berlin here in the London Assembly. I know that the long experience of a big capital and metropolis like London, compared with that of Berlin with its divided history of confrontation, looks to us like a big achievement, and also that you have been a capital of a big Commonwealth in the last 200-300 years without a broken tradition.

We look forward to hearing all about London on your next trip to Berlin. I am glad that I have the opportunity to talk to you after my speech today. I wish London, a city we admire, and we want to learn from, all the best for the future. I wish the London Assembly and the Mayor continued success in their work, and the friendship between our people and the partnership between London and Berlin would be a good contribution to a successful policy-making and cooperation. I thank you for your patience. Thank you very much.

4. KEN LIVINGSTONE – MAYOR OF LONDON

Can I say that it is a delight to welcome you here, not just because of the tradition of your city, and the tradition of its mayors, which we hope to emulate over time, but to correct some of your misunderstandings.

You said that unlike Berlin, we have not been divided by a great Wall. We do however have the River Thames, and it is often seen as difficult to get a taxi to drive across it as it must have been to get through Checkpoint Charlie.

Can I also say that if you look at the comparisons, similarities and dissimilarities between the structure here, it is very much more of an American style system that the Government has given to London. I think that the Assembly will actually be able to work very closely with your Chamber in terms of scrutiny.

I suspect that the wonderful portrait you painted of the powers of the London Assembly may not be wholly shared by all Members of the Assembly and we will discuss this further over lunch.

However, what we do share is a recognition that we can learn so much from each other. I talked about the history of Berlin. I suspect the greatest part of the history of Berlin is still to come. As Europe moves eastwards and we see the integration of peoples who have been divided by the Cold War, eventually I hope to see even further moves eastward to the Urals, recognising the totality of Europe, for all its different traditions, recognising the huge potential of that market, and of that vast body of people and resources. I see these moves in terms of helping to determine the direction of global history, and perhaps posing a more acceptable and humane alternative to some of the others currently being peddled as the future of the world.

As that world emerges, in Europe, Berlin’s centrality will be absolutely crucial to how it develops. Berlin, more than perhaps any other city, is genuinely the bridge between east and west in Europe and, certainly, I and my successors will always view Berlin as being absolutely of crucial importance for us playing a full role in Europe.

We know that the sad tradition of British politics has usually meant that we come along a bit late to the party and then want to change the rules of the day. I regret we are still, in a sense, following 5 - -

that pattern, and I hope that one day, when you or one of your successors come here, you will not need to change your money any more, but I suspect we will not have a vote on whether that is wholly shared by the Assembly as a sentiment.

It is the history of Berlin which is an inspiration. Like all the greatest world cities, it is not just about the economic power of a city, but the art and culture of a city that makes it its most attractive. Between the wars, theatre in Berlin set a global standard, and it is not surprising that all the radicalism that came out of the world of theatre in Berlin was rapidly stamped out by the Nazis, and seen as a threat to their totality and control. This is a good warning sign to those politicians who think they can interfere too much in choosing artistic pace, or trying to guide them.

As well as the greatness of the city – and I have visited it, always a guest of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland, and perhaps I have not therefore seen the full range of political opinions there – whenever I have visited I have been struck by just the openness that there is there. In the same way that you spoke of diversity of people who make up London, that is the role that Berlin plays at the centre and heart of Europe, and what I hope we all learn is how the role of your Mayor has developed and grown over the passage of time.

To our generation of politicians, perhaps one of the most inspiring figures in world politics was , and he created that base in Germany, at the heart of Berlin, as its mayor, and went on to be, I think, perhaps, one of the most important European leaders since the end of the war. He did more, perhaps, than anybody else to bring down the tensions and suspicions. He was, in a sense, for a generation that is, perhaps, too young to know and understand, very much a Gorbachev-type figure in terms of his popularity around the world, who inspired people across the world, and particularly inspired our generation, which was rather disaffected at those times. We could see a world leader who you felt understood what we represented.

I have to say that you have followed in his footsteps, and I think that you have some of that character, because as the wall started to crumble, you did not stay behind your desk. You were out there with a bloody megaphone making sure it came down, at the cutting edge of changing the nature of a world we wished to see move behind us.

So we welcome you, not just for the city you represent, but for what you yourself are. We are proud you are here with us today and we look forward to a very strong relationship with you in the future. Thank you.

SALLY HAMWEE - CHAIR OF THE LONDON ASSEMBLY

Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the Assembly, and formally, can I welcome you to London. We are sorry that your wife, Anne, was not able to be here. We know that she has had an accident and we send our best wishes for a quick recovery.

I am particularly pleased that the launch of the relationship between the Assembly and the House of Representatives was to be marked, not just by expressions of friendship, sincere as those are, but by a followed piece of work. I will immediately lower our sights from the important and world-shaking events that the Mayor has just referred to and that you referred to, to talk a little about the joint projects that we hope here to confirm next week, under the title, ‘Protecting our City Environment’. We hope that we can look at, and share, how we achieve a safe and high quality public realm, how we deal with things like graffiti, street lighting, fly posting, litter, and the cluttering and degrading of our streets by dumping of everything from chewing gum to abandoned cars and fridges. 6 - -

The subject was not chosen lightly. In both cities we felt that we should find a topic which is relevant to the powers and the responsibilities of our two institutions; where there are opportunities for each city to learn from the other; something which is relevant to the everyday lives of Berliners and Londoners; and with scope for a practical outcome and a positive impact on the quality of life for our citizens.

I was struck by two particular comments from among those who have endorsed the project. The German ambassador to the UK, Thomas Matussek, talked of London and Berlin being examples of converging European centres. He said, and this very much echoes what both of you have already said this morning, ‘When I speak to young people in the UK, and especially in London, they do not have to be persuaded about the great and exciting future of these two cities in Europe’, and I am sure that those of us who talk to young people recognise that.

However, they also have practical and personal concerns, and the Mayor and I have discussed this. When we talk to young people they talk about crime, they talk about personal safety, and many of them say that they hate graffiti. So that has a relevance at that level.

The British ambassador to Germany, Sir Peter Torry, said ‘Scrutiny of policy and accountability are at the heart of the democratic idea’. Democracy and democratic government are the context for this piece of work which is the other thing that I would like to mention - city government.

We have heard, and we all know that it is salutary to hear it from someone who was so closely involved, about the huge, fast changes in the city of Berlin. Nothing quite so dramatic in London, but I do think that it is a mark that the Assembly is maturing as a political institution, that we are looking beyond London and the UK to how we can work with, and learn from, another city government to improve life in our capital.

Walter has given, not just his career, but his life to democratic politics, and the Mayor has already mentioned what happened when the Berlin Wall came down, significantly achieving calm in a highly volatile situation. That must be one of the characteristics of good, democratic government. You said ‘Berliners fell into one another’s arms’. I thought that was a wonderful phrase and something I will hold on to.

We tend to forget in this country that universal suffrage is comparatively recent. Women got the vote on the same basis as men 75 years ago almost to the day, less than a lifetime. Last week some members of this Assembly were privileged, and I do not use that term lightly, to meet the Mayor of Harare, Elias Madzuri, who is a member of the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

He was democratically elected. He was forced out of his offices. I put it that way because he is determined that that does not mean out of office, by Robert Mugabe’s men. He made it very clear to us that the MDC does not want violence to depose Mugabe; what it wants is free and fair elections. Elias returned to Zimbabwe at the weekend. He knew he was likely to face imprisonment in appalling conditions, not for the first time, or worse. He was indeed detained on his arrival, then he was released, but access to his offices was, again, barred. He and others who uphold peaceful change in such circumstances are much in our minds. The moral and physical courage shown by some politicians is humbling. It is a reminder, I think, of the responsibility carried by all of us who are in elected positions, and there are far more in the Chamber today than just on the Floor, we have many in the Gallery.

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Herr Momper – Walter – we look forward to our joint work with the Berlin House of Representatives. We look forward to contributing to the quality of life in London and Berlin. You talked of Berlin having friends all over the world - you have friends here in London. Thank you for joining us.

7. MOTIONS The following motion was moved by Eric Ollerenshaw and seconded by Richard Barnes:

This Assembly has no confidence in its Chair Baroness Hamwee and its Deputy Chair Samantha Heath .

This follows their advice to the Assembly Meeting on the 11th June that the Transport Committee could deal with the following motion:

“This Assembly opposes any proposal for a third parallel runway at Heathrow Airport and any additional 6th terminal that may be required to service it and notes that the Government’s consultation paper “The Future Development of Air Transport in the United Kingdom” believes that a third runway at Heathrow would have a significant impact on noise and air quality.

Proposed: Richard Barnes Seconded: Tony Arbour

Plus amendments and still have time to meet the Government’s consultation deadline of 30th June 2003.

The Transport Committee on the 19th June also refused to take this motion and the amendments which has resulted in London’s Assembly, through lack of consideration and debate, being unable to submit a unanimous all-party response to Government consultation on the possible expansion of London’s Airports, a matter of massive strategic importance to all Londoners.

Following a debate the motion was put to the Assembly and there were 12 in favour and 13 against and the motion was declared lost.

8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT (Item 8)

There was none

The meeting ended at 12.35pm

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