''Today, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we must continue to reassert ourselves as equal partners of national governments in an emergent system of multi-level governance,'' stated Herwig van Staa, at the Conference on ''20 years of the Congress and the Committee of the Regions'', in Innsbruck, Austria. ''While we have much to celebrate, we cannot ignore that decentralisation – local and regional democracy – has reached a crossroads, challenged by the increasing threats to the European democratic model,'' he underlined. ''Local and regional authorities are at the forefront of responding to these threats, and our future depends on the capacity of our two assemblies to lead in this action. To be successful, we must work to embed a culture of decentralised democracy in European governance. We must convince national governments that it is dangerous to roll back democracy and participation, by seeking to make short-term financial savings.''Luc van den Brande, Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions of the EU also underlined the importance of establishing a multilevel governance Charter which would promote the values of partnership and cooperation between different levels of governance.

Speech