EU-Central-Local Relations Seminar,

Transcription

1 EU-Central-Local Relations Seminar, Brussels 15 th May, 10.30am pm House of Cities, Municipalities and Regions - 1 Square de Meeus (1 st floor)

2 EU-Central-Local Relations Seminar Purpose: On 15 th May practitioners from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden will present and discuss with representatives from other Member States and European institutions how various models of local and regional consultation and formulation of both national and EU policies work in practice and what lessons can be learned to improve EUcentral-local/regional relations in the future. The focus is on best, and less successful, practices in central-local negotiations at both the domestic level as well as in EU policymaking particularly in the context of the future of Europe discussion/post 2020 MFF, new socio-economic governance/structural reform, Better Regulation and the Subsidiarity Task Force. The seminar is practitioner-driven, Chatham House style presentation and discussion forum highlighting practical experiences and lessons learned from the different models of central-local relations. The aim is to underscore common experiences and successful schemes that can serve as models in other countries, and for national and EU officials dealing with EU policy formulation and implementation. A light lunch will be provided by the national associations of local and regional authorities organising the Seminar. Format Opening Anders Knape, Congress Rapporteur on Right of local authorities to be Consulted First Roundtable presentations of each model the domestic angle Lunch Second Roundtable specifically on EU relations Close. Speakers * Austria - Constitutional and legal provisions on consultation with municipalities Mr Thomas Weninger, Secretary General, Austrian Association of Cities and Towns * Denmark Parliamentary and Governmental Hearing system Mr Asger Andreasen, Chief Advisor, Danish Regions Ms Maja Andreasen, Special Advisor, Local Government Denmark * Finland EU Affairs Sub-Committees Ms Erja Horttanainen, EU Affairs Manager, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities * Iceland Improving consultation with local authorities post-economic crisis in 2008 Mr Guðjón Bragason, Director, Department of Legal Affairs and Welfare, Icelandic Association of Local Authorities (Samband) * Italy Conferences of State, Regions and Local Governments Mr Andrea Ciaffi, Director of European and International Affairs, Conference of the Italian Regions * Netherlands Code of Interinstitutional Relations, Inter-administrative Dossier Teams (IBDT) Mr. Jeroen Lalleman, Head of the department for Governance and Security, Union of Netherlands Municipalities VNG * Scotland Ms. Sally Loudon COSLA Chief Executive (tbc) * Sweden Remiss government consultation Mr Anders Knape, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Rapporteur on Guidelines on the right of local authorities to be consulted by higher levels of government (introduction) Mr Bo Per Larsson, Senior Policy Officer, Swedish Association of Local and Regional Authorities

3 Facilitators Mr. Serafin Pazos-Vidal, Head of Brussels Office (morning) Mr. Thomas Wobben, Director for Legislative Work, Committee of the Regions (afternoon) Please Register your attendance (ideally before 8 May) by clicking here Background note Austria process of formulation of the Austrian position with the Länder, the mandate and representation of those. That is to say, the constitution acts as an expression of the territorial relations of power. In the Austrian case, Article 23.d establishes the obligation to consult and articulates multilevel cooperation, including issues of international and EU law. The Austrian Association of Municipalities and the Austrian Associations of Cities are explicitly recognised in the Austrian Constitution as official consultative bodies. Fiscal policy is coordinated through the Consultation Mechanism (Konsultationsmechanismus) and the Austrian Stability Pact. Both are legally binding treaties between the federal level (Bund), the states (Länder) and the municipal level (Städte und Gemeinden) represented by the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns and the Austrian Association of Municipalities The Consultation Mechanism stipulates that the partners are to be consulted prior to the presentation of a bill to parliament. Also there has to be a calculation of expected cost for the three levels of government.the Austrian Stability Pact sets a group of fiscal limits to all three levels so that Austria as a whole can accomplish the European Stability Pact. Denmark While Local Government is recognised in the Danish Constitution, there is no legal framework for consultation procedures. Parliamentary rules of procedure (standing orders) stipulate that all relevant partners are to be consulted prior to the presentation of a bill to parliament. There are established procedures on consultation with Local Government Denmark (KL) and Danish Regions (DR) on all legislation with a bearing on local and regional authorities, as is consultation with individual local authorities or regions whenever pending legislation has a special bearing on them. While purely consultative, this gives a degree of predictability that enables proper policy development by local government. Within the Danish EU decision-making process is a formal avenue to shape government policy through their 33 EU Special Committees. The line Ministry chairs and provides the Secretariat for a given Committee. In the four weeks allocated to prepare a Danish negotiating provision, the Committee will evaluate the judicial, administrative and economic impact of the proposal and whether it is at odds with Danish interests. The purpose of the EU-Special Committees is to prepare the Danish EU-mandate on the different issues. The EU Committee in the Parliament gives the final mandate to the ministers before going to a Council meeting. KL/DR are currently represented in ten committees. Finland The Committee for EU Affairs meets usually once a week and serves as an advisory and mediatory body in the coordination of EU affairs among the different ministries. To prepare the work it has appointed about 40 sector-specific preparative Sub committees which constitute the foundations for the preparation of EU affairs at the civil servant level. Some committees hold meetings almost monthly, some before the Council meetings and some only twice a year. The sub-committees can assemble in a restricted or extended composition. An extended composition includes representatives of various interest groups and other concerned parties. The Finnish Association of Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) are represented in most of the extended EU sub-committees and in the sub-committee on Regional and Structural Policy. In Finland Parliament has active role in EU -affairs and these affairs are handled there by the Grand Committee. In preparation process different sectorial committees invite AFLRA to be heard in the matters concerning municipalities and regions.

4 Iceland Article 78 of the Constitution forms the basis of the legal status of local authorities and their relationship with the central government. It confers the right of self-government on local authorities regarding their own affairs, as defined by law. The Local Government Act No. 128/2011 designates the Icelandic Associations of Municipalities (Samband) as the official representative of local government and so it is recognised in the Icelandic Constitution. The Act obliges the national government to consult Samband before taking decisions or proposing new laws, and at successive stages in the decision-making process. The Act also obliges the Government to conclude a Cooperation Agreement with Samband and to create a Joint Committee on State and Local Government made up of four Ministers and the leadership of Samband. All key decisions on local government reform are negotiated in this formal body. However, the new Public Finance Act No. 123/2015, puts greater weight on coordinating the fiscal policies of the State and the municipal level before the 5-year fiscal plan is finalised. A vital part of this process is an annual agreement between the Central government and the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities. Italy The State-Regions Conference fosters cooperation between the State, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces by conveying the views of the Conference of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces to the State. The State-Cities and Local Autonomies Conference is charged with the coordination between the State and LRAs, as well as the monitoring of policies which may impact the LRAs competences. It cooperates with UPI, ANCI, as well as UNCEM and holds joint meetings with the Conference of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces on matters of common interest. A Joint Conference (Conferenza unificata) brings together the State-Region Conference and the State-Cities and Local Autonomies Conference. Its mission is to foster cooperation between the State and all the LRAs. It is competent in cases where all levels of governance are called upon to express themselves on the same issue. Where an EU act falls under regional or local competence, the Central Government transfers it to the Conference system, which formulates the Italian position to be presented in the EU Council. Moreover, regional representatives and local experts may be invited to the Government s European Affairs Department meetings. Regional governments have twenty days to formulate proposals before the Italian Government formulates its position. Netherlands The Local Autonomy (Provinces and Municipalities) is recognised both in the Constitution and in secondary legislation. This imposes an obligation to consult councils on matters affecting them. The Code of Intergovernmental Relations contains agreements and procedures on interaction between the central government, provinces, municipalities and water authorities so that each can be mutually accountable in its areas of responsibility. The Inter-Administrative Dossier Teams (IBDT) bring together the national government and the national associations of municipalities (VNG) and Provinces (IPO). The Dossier teams assess and formulate national and EU policy in terms of subsidiarity, financial and social impact, administrative burden, and impact on business and the environment. There are about twenty Dossier Teams, thirteen of them EU specific. On EU issues, IPO and VNG participate in the national co-ordinating working group that prepares the first Dutch positions for the COREPER (Ambassadors meeting ahead of Council of Ministers) and the working groups of the Council (weekly meetings), as well as in the national expert group on EU Law. The monthly ministerial-local government meeting (EOBB) was established by the Minister of Public Administration to provide a practical platform to ensure 'Europe and local governments ' early interagency cooperation.

5 Sweden The consultation procedure (Remiss) is not strictly defined. The national government is legally obliged to consult local and regional authorities through the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) before it promulgates legislation that affects them. SALAR is consulted in many ways through participation in government committees that prepare new legislation before the ministries propose it to Parliament. The funding principle entails that ministries and government authorities may not impose additional obligations on local and regional authorities without commensurate funding. They are therefore expected to consult SALAR, and to conclude an agreement on how the local and regional authorities can finance the estimated costs for the new tasks, without raising taxes. There is a long tradition of cooperation and consultation between the national and local level. The local and regional levels have many avenues to influence the policy-making process, and the national level is interested in the contribution of the local and regional level. However, the traditional links between the levels have weakened in the last decades and the interest from the ministries and government authorities in consulting SALAR is not always as strong as before. There are also great variations between different departments. Scotland Scotland is an entirely separate local government jurisdiction within the UK. Since 1999 local government legislation is almost exclusively a Scottish Parliament competence. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) is the current incarnation of a 600-year tradition of local authorities associating nationally in Scotland. Despite this, Scottish Local Government (as it is also the case elsewhere in the UK) has no form of statutory or constitutional protection as required by the Charter of Local Self Government of the Council of Europe. There are however numerous ad hoc, and policy-specific arrangements for intergovernmental negotiations with various Scottish or (in non-devolved powers) UK Government departments on issues such as outcome agreements, community planning, community empowerment. There are few formal central-local partnership arrangements covering the whole central-local government system, both UK-wide or Scotland-only. Paradoxically, EU Membership has led to, by way of the Localism Act 2011, some recognition of the need for formalised and predictable mechanisms for EU negotiation and implementation between the UK and local governments, with arrangements within Scotland remaining more tentative. Conversely, Brexit requires this to be developed in more detail to address the repatriation and further apportionment of EU returned powers across the UK. The UK Government has already issued a statement proposing a new arrangement that would replicate the consultative functions currently held by the EU Committee of the Regions within the UK.