New Tool Kit on Capacity-Building
This new Toolkit includes two powerful instruments which include a benchmarking methodology. They are aimed at improving local regulations and practice in respect of public ethics and financial management. Both tools have already been implemented in several countries.

The two themes dealt with by this Toolkit are extremely topical. Corruption represents not only a waste of public resources but, first and foremost, a real threat to local democracy itself. Sound financial management is the first condition to ensure proper delivery of public services and allows local authorities to avoid or limit the consequences of economic crises.

These tools strive to transform knowledge into skills: during the implementation of the programmes based on them, participants will learn about new practices and experiences, will find new solutions to common problems and will get acquainted with innovative participatory problem-solving methods. The tools also try to transform such skills into institutional capacity: local authorities will have at their disposal tailored instruments and methodologies they can continue to make use of in order to increase performance long after the end of the “official” programmes. Last but not least, proper implementation of the tools will normally lead to real-life change in participating municipalities.

The Additional Protocol adds a new dimension the European Charter of Local Self-Government by providing an international legal guarantee of the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority. The right to participate in the affairs of a local authority denotes the right to seek to determine or to influence the exercise of a local authority's powers and responsibilities. Parties to this protocol are required to take legal and other measures to facilitate the exercise of and give effect to this right. The protocol also requires measures be taken which are necessary to ensure that the ethical integrity and transparency of the exercise of local authorities’ powers and responsibilities are not jeopardised by the exercise of the right to participate.

“Good local and regional governance in turbulent times: the challenge of change”

16th Session, Utrecht, 16 - 17 November 2009

The challenge facing ministers at a difficult time

The global financial crisis has given a severe jolt to the very foundations of the world's economy and economic governance. While signs of a recovery are emerging, it is clear that the after-effects of the recession will continue to be felt for a long time. Local and regional authorities which, in Europe, manage proportions of public expenditure ranging up to as high as 80% are in the forefront of efforts to find a way out of the crisis, through exceptional investment expenditure, spending in the social sphere or on vocational retraining, etc. Their ability to cope with these exceptional challenges, which will remain long after the recession has come to an end, were the focal point of the discussions among the European Ministers responsible for local and regional government when they met in Utrecht (Netherlands) on 16 and 17 November 2009.

Meeting under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the Ministers considered the policy options open to them as they seek a way out of the crisis through better local and regional governance. These range from rationalisation of the supply of local public services to changes in the methods of funding local authorities, from an easing of the administrative constraints on municipalities to the delegation of budgets, and from stronger dialogue between central government and local and regional authorities to a rationalisation of local and regional structures. All of these issues were discussed amongst the Ministers and between them and the local and regional elected representatives from member states who are members of the delegation sent by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

It was also at the ministerial conference that the Utrecht Agenda was adopted, covering the challenges in the sphere of local and regional governance facing member states over the period 2010-2013, challenges to which a response will be given in the context of intergovernmental co-operation at the Council of Europe.

Other subjects on the conference agenda were transfrontier co-operation and follow-up to the report by the Minister of Public Administration and Local Government of Finland, Mrs Mari Kiviniemi, on how to enhance the work of the Council of Europe in the field of local and regional democracy. Two new conventions, the Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the Right to Participate in the Affairs of a Local Authority and Protocol No. 3 to the Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Groupings (ECGs) were opened for signature.

The Council of Europe and local and regional democracy

Best known for its action to protect human rights, the Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is a forum for co-operation between European states on everything related to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Its strategic priorities include the promotion and consolidation of local and regional democracy and good local governance. The European Ministers responsible for local and regional government, at their meetings usually held every other year, adopt political positions, determine the areas and subjects of their co-operation and give extra impetus to the Organisation's activities in this field. Among the Council of Europe's achievements in the sphere of local and regional democracy are conventions (European Charter of Local Self-Government, Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level, Madrid Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities), assistance programmes, a Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, and European Local Democracy Week.