CG/CoR/HLG(2021)1PVprov 7 May 2021

HIGH LEVEL GROUP

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS / CONGRESS OF THE

DRAFT SUMMARY REPORT OF THE VIDEO CONFERENCE HELD ON 22 APRIL 2021 12.45 p.m.-1.45 p.m.

Videoconference via Webex 22 April 2021, from 12:45 to 13:45

Working language: English

Delegates:

Leendert Verbeek, President of the Congress Harald Sonderegger, President of the Chamber of Regions Bernd Vöhringer, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities

Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President of the European Committee of the Regions Mark Speich, CIVEX Chair

Andreas Kiefer, Congress Secretary General Petr Blížkovský, CoR Secretary-General

Secretariat:

Congress

Rafael Benitez, Director of the Congress Renate Zikmund, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Local Authorities Dmitri Marchenkov, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Regions Giampaolo Cordiale, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Regions Justine Lauret, Policy Officer

CoR

Aurel Trandafir, Head of President's Cabinet Filippo Terruso, President's Cabinet member Anna Passera, SG's Cabinet member Béatrice Taulegne, Director of Directorate B Bert Kuby, Head of Unit B3 (CIVEX) Marinko Raos, Policy Officer

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1 Introductory remarks by the Presidents

President Verbeek opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. He pointed out that since the meeting of the High-Level Group in January 2019, the two institutions had renewed their membership and presidencies, and adopted priorities for the new mandate; many of them complementary to each other. The present meeting was an occasion to identify priority areas of common interest for pursuing co-operation, in the spirit of complementarity and common concern for advancing decentralisation and strengthening local and regional democracy. President Verbeek called to join forces to ensure that cities and regions are fully equipped for post-crisis recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic, and that their voice is heard in the dialogue with national governments.

President Tzitzikostas congratulated the Presidents of the Congress and of its two Chambers on their election in March 2021, stressing that the meeting marked the good co-operation between the two institutions. Despite their different institutional roles, both the Congress and the CoR shared the goal of promoting local and regional democracy and good governance on the European continent; a basis for co- operation to improve the quality of democracy for citizens, which stemmed from the EU’s fundamental principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. He underlined the CoR ‘s current emphasis on contributing to the debate on the future of Europe and to making the EU more performant, more inclusive and involving better its citizens, and reaffirmed the commitment to the CoR-Congress collaboration.

The agenda of the meeting was adopted.

2 Stocktaking of past activities

Secretary General Kiefer stressed that the Congress maintained active contact with local and regional authorities across Europe despite the restrictive measures, and presented two Congress online tools developed to assess the state of local and regional democracy: CARTA-MONITOR on the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government by Council of Europe member States, and bE-Open on frameworks for transparent and ethical governance, citizen participation and fight against corruption in select countries. He also presented the Congress Hub of Partners Action, a web platform showcasing local and regional responses to Covid-19. This hub contained a link to the respective CoR website.

He recalled that during the pandemic, the Congress established remote procedures for monitoring and for election observation. Since 2019 monitoring of the Charter’s implementation was carried in respect of , , , , , Republic of , and , and local elections were observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine. Monitoring reports for Turkey and Ukraine were to be updated in the second half of 2021; the Congress was also consulted by the European Commission for its progress review report on Turkey, and contributed to the work of relevant CoR bodies in respect of specific countries, in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina, , Turkey and Ukraine. In the Republic of Moldova, a roadmap for implementing Congress recommendations was signed on 15 April 2021, and commitment to co-operation reaffirmed during the meeting of the Congress President with the President of the Republic of Moldova on 18 April 2021; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, successful local elections were held in the City of Mostar in December 2020 for the first time in 12 years; in Belarus, a round table was organised in Minsk in April 2019 on improving local self-government in line with the Charter and possible co-operation in that area. The Congress also continued its active participation in the Council of Europe’ North-South Centre, together with CoR, and its activities in the South Mediterranean, with Morocco and Tunisia becoming Partners for Local Democracy with the Congress in 2019.

Secretary General Blížkovský underlined four areas of co-operation with great potential for synergies: improving the quality of democracy (including the contribution to the Local and Regional Barometer and to the Conference on the Future of Europe as well as holding Congress-CoR High-Level Group meetings and pursuing institutional thematic exchanges in each other’s committees and working groups); building sustainable societies and combating climate change; strengthening co-operation in response to the pandemic; and continuing co-operation in specific geographical areas such as the Eastern Partnership, South-East Europe and the South Mediterranean.

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3 Outlook for thematic and political priorities of co-operation: discussion on the state of local and regional democracy in the current crisis circumstances

President Verbeek stressed that the pandemic created a new agenda and changed the way democracy was functioning. The Congress addressed the consequences of the pandemic in its reports on local and regional elections in major crises, adopted in September 2020, and on ensuring the respect of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in major crises, adopted in March 2021.

He pointed out that the impact of Covid-19 on multi-level governance was characterised by recentralisation trends, with national governments using the pandemic to take competences away from local and regional authorities; yet the system of multi-level governance proved to respond effectively to the crisis, allowing for prompt and flexible solutions adapted to local needs. The challenge now was to ensure the return to pre- crisis decentralised governance and the proper role of local and regional authorities in post-crisis recovery; this would take putting pressure on governments by both the Congress and the CoR and must be part of their agenda. Post-crisis recovery and building resilient, sustainable and cohesive societies was already part of the priorities of both the Congress and the CoR, which must serve as a basis for combining efforts and developing a “roadmap” for joint action.

President Vöhringer underlined that local and regional authorities were at the frontline of responding to the pandemic; mayors and governors, local and regional councils played a crucial role in maintaining public services and responding to citizens’ needs at a time when structural inequalities (poverty, youth unemployment, inequality of access to care and to digital technologies) were aggravated, the civic and social rights of the most vulnerable were threatened and increased hate speech against certain groups (such as Roma or LGBTI people) was observed. At the same time, societies showed solidarity between age groups and professional categories, between citizens and authorities and between territories; citizens demonstrated civic responsibility in response to restrictive measures; territories established interregional and cross-border cooperation for supply, transfer of patients, and sharing of experiences; and the development of digital services was sped up, with many citizen participation platforms launched. The inequalities worsened by the crisis must be addressed in post-crisis recovery, which was a Congress priority in building cohesive societies, boding well for synergies with the CoR priority of improving social, economic and territorial cohesion.

President Sonderegger stressed that restrictive measures led in many cases to a temporary “lockdown” of local democracy, the shrinking of space for public debate and consultations, and difficulties for local and regional councils to hold meetings and organise deliberations on decisions to be taken, coupled with a sharp decline in the input from citizens. Local and regional elections were postponed in some countries against the need to protect health and security of individuals and the impossibility to guarantee all aspects of the electoral process; this presented a problem of democratic legitimacy and prompted the Congress to pioneer a report providing an overview of electoral standards and steps needed to ensure free and fair elections in crisis. The Congress called for the core of electoral principles (universal, equal, free, and secret suffrage) to be upheld for elections in all circumstances in order to be meaningful and to enjoy the trust of the public, and asked member states to respect international electoral standards and good practice in their decisions to maintain or postpone elections. The pandemic cannot be a reason for reducing democratic guarantees or an excuse for withholding genuine public debate; on the contrary, the increased use of digital technologies allowed developing new capacities in service delivery to citizens and greater opportunities for online participation and must be explored further. The Congress priority on building democratic and digitals societies and the CoR priority on strengthening democracy and responding to digital challenges provided a good potential for synergies.

President Tzitzikostas stressed the priority of bringing Europe closer to people, as provided for in Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would reinforce democracy at all levels of governance. Europe was home to democracy of many layers, including the European and national levels, and the resilience of this democracy needed to be protected, especially in times of crisis. The CoR contributed to the EU’s European Democracy Action Plan with the appointment of its member, Mayor of Gdansk Alexandra Dulkiewicz, as Rapporteur for the CoR opinion on the Plan, as well as to the development of a new strategy for the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and to the Conference on the Future of Europe, to be formally launched in Strasbourg on 9 May 2021 (Europe Day). In this context, the CoR organises its own kick-off event, and plans to organise further local dialogues throughout the Conference's work. The Congress President and the Council of Europe Secretary General would be invited to the CoR plenary session in December 2021; the Congress President accepted the invitation.

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The CoR was also preparing its annual Local and Regional Barometer – an overview of the situation of cities and regions in Europe – to be presented in October 2021, with the goal of having the voice of cities and regions heard and help them with post-crisis recovery. The Barometer will focus on demography and democracy, the EU Recovery Plan, the European Green Deal, the health situation, the territorial impact of Brexit, and migration; the Congress was invited to contribute its expertise in local and regional democracy with an analysis of the situation of local and regional authorities across Europe, possibly by mid-June 2021. President Tzitzikostas stressed the value of the Congress expertise and the importance of joint work on the Barometer, expressed appreciation for the two Congress reports already received by the CoR.

Chair of the CIVEX Commission Speich presented the Adamowicz Award launched by the CoR in honour of the assassinated Mayor of Gdansk Paweł Adamowicz and in recognition of everyone who works with courage and integrity against intolerance, radicalisation, hate speech, oppression and xenophobia. He invited the Congress to participate in the Award’s Selection Committee in the second part of 2021 and to disseminate information about this initiative. He also proposed developing co-operation on Kosovo*, in particular with regard to the unresolved issue of an Association of Serb Municipalities, based on the example of the Congress-CoR successful co-operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the situation in the City of Mostar.

President Verbeek indicated that the proposal for participation in the Adamowicz Award would be presented positively to the Congress Bureau and that the proposal for co-operation in Kosovo* necessitated further discussion. Secretary General Kiefer indicated that he would address the issues with the EU Ambassador to the Council of Europe and with the Head of the CoE Office in Brussels, noting that the 2013 Brussels Agreement on the Association of Serb Municipalities remained unimplemented; he also referred to the CoE ongoing co-operation activities in Kosovo* based on functional engagement, which served as a framework for Congress co-operation activities as well, aimed at promoting local democracy standards.

4 Possible terms for the next HLG meeting

The next meeting will be hosted by the President of the CoR in December 2021.

5 Any other business

No other business was raised.

6 Closing remarks

The Presidents of the Congress and of the CoR expressed their satisfaction with the meeting which resulted in concrete proposals and agreed that the respective thematic priorities are complementary, reflecting the challenges faced by local and regional authorities in Europe and offering a significant potential for synergies and joint action going forward. The Congress Secretariat was instructed to prepare a “roadmap” with next steps for co-operation.

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* All references to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.

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